Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, April 22, 1994 TAG: 9404220215
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: The New York Times Note: above
DATELINE: NEW YORK LENGTH: Short
A two-sentence statement issued by the hospital Thursday afternoon said the 81-year-old Nixon was resting comfortably, but it provided no other details about his condition or whether he remained in an intensive-care unit. No further statements were issued.
Though the statement was terse in describing a further deterioration in Nixon's condition, the fact that it was made at all indicated the change was substantive. Wednesday, the hospital said it would provide no further details about Nixon's condition unless it changed significantly.
In keeping with his wishes, Nixon was not receiving extraordinary life-support measures.
The statement Thursday also said that Nixon's family was at his bedside. His daughters, Tricia Nixon Cox and Julie Nixon Eisenhower, have been at the hospital most of the week. Nixon's wife, Pat, died last June of lung cancer at the age of 81.
Two Marine sergeants arrived at the hospital Thursday, apparently to serve as honor guards if the former president died.
In Washington, a spokesman for House Speaker Thomas Foley, D-Wash., said the Capitol's Rotunda would be available for Nixon to lie in state if he dies and his family makes the request.
Speaking to reporters, Henry Kissinger, who was Nixon's national security adviser and secretary of state, said of his former boss' determination: ``If this is something that can be licked by will power, by tenacity, then he can lick it.''
by CNB