The Nation - News from Aug. 1, 1988

Former U.S. Rep. Barbara Jordan was “vastly improved” and giving the thumbs-up sign to her hospital nurse after a near-drowning in her swimming pool. “She’s in good spirits now because she knows she’s going to get well,” said Dr. William J. Deaton, a lung specialist. Jordan, 52, who gained national attention during the Richard M. Nixon impeachment hearings, was flown by emergency helicopter to Brackenridge Hospital in Austin, Tex., after she was found floating face-down in her pool. Deaton said she came within “four to five minutes, 10 minutes at most,” of suffering severe brain damage and possibly death. Jordan, the first Southern black elected to Congress since Reconstruction, apparently lost consciousness while in the pool.