SHORT TAKES : Sutherland Tells of His Diseases
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MONTREAL — 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.
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