SHORT TAKES : Sutherland Tells of His Diseases

You name it, Donald Sutherland has had it.

Polio, rheumatic fever, hepatitis, an appendectomy, pneumonia, scarlet fever.

“And spinal meningitis,” the actor said. “I died. . . . “

A reporter chuckled. Sutherland looked perturbed.

“Yes. I died. For four or five seconds,” he said.

Sutherland overcame the bout of meningitis and says his experience with disease since childhood left him with a deep appreciation of the medical profession.

He is the 1989 honorary fund-raising chairman of the Montreal Children’s Hospital, which hopes to raise $1 million this year to pay for renovations and new equipment.

Sutherland said concern for his five children makes him especially sympathetic to the hospital’s appeal.