Lindsay Suffered Mild Stroke, Doctors Find

Los Angeles City Councilman Gilbert W. Lindsay suffered a mild stroke last week instead of exhaustion as had been announced, his doctors concluded Wednesday after a battery of tests on the feisty 87-year-old lawmaker.

A spokeswoman at Queen of Angels Medical Center said Lindsay is experiencing weakness in his right hand but no other symptoms, such as slurred speech or paralysis, that sometimes follow a stroke.

“The doctors met this morning and after discussing the tests, concluded that he had suffered a mild stroke,” hospital spokeswoman Doris Stanley said. “He can move his arm, and his legs were not affected, and his doctors say he will make a complete recovery.”

Stanley added that Lindsay, though told of the stroke, appeared in good spirits and was joking with hospital personnel. She added that Lindsay had asked her to inform the press about the development.

Lindsay, the oldest member of the City Council, entered Queen of Angels last Thursday complaining of exhaustion. He had checked into the same hospital three months earlier for the same reason.

Doctors conducted a battery of tests after his admission but did not fully analyze the results until Wednesday, Stanley said. The stroke is apparently the first one Lindsay has had that doctors have detected, she added.

The councilman has already begun some physical therapy to strengthen his right hand, including squeezing a rubber ball, and will undergo other forms of treatment over the next week to 10 days. He had earlier been expected to remain hospitalized until today.

Neither Lindsay nor his doctors were available to discuss the councilman’s condition.

The first black ever to serve on the council, Lindsay has represented the 9th District since 1963, when he was appointed to fill out the unexpired term of Edward Roybal, who was elected to Congress in 1962. Lindsay is currently completing his seventh four-year term, and his chief deputy, Robert Gay, said Wednesday that Lindsay is “absolutely, unequivocally” going to run for reelection next spring.