Schuller Stable After Urgent Brain Surgery

The Rev. Robert H. Schuller, internationally known preacher and founder of the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, was alert and stable Monday after emergency brain surgery in the Netherlands.

Schuller underwent a successful three-hour operation in Amsterdam, his stopover en route to the Vatican and to the Soviet Union, where he hoped to reinstate his Christian television program.

News of Schuller’s expected recovery was a relief to church members who had flocked to the Crystal Cathedral. Well-wishers jammed telephone lines to the church, among them an aide to President Bush. Co-pastor Bruce Larson said Bush had asked that the U.S. Embassy in Amsterdam extend “all help and assistance” to the host of the syndicated television program “Hour of Power.”

Doctors said the surgery was needed to repair an injury caused when Schuller bumped his head while entering a car. Surgeons removed a blood clot with no complications and anticipate no brain damage, according to the pastor’s aide, Michael Nason.

Church spokesmen said Schuller, 64, was on his way to Moscow with Nason and a son-in-law, Paul David Dunn, at the invitation of Soviet broadcasting officials. A program featuring Schuller sermons was taken off the air in the Soviet Union last spring.

After he struck his head Sunday, Schuller complained of headaches and dizziness. He dined and spent the evening alone in his hotel.

He then failed to appear for an appointment Monday. Nason and Dunn, with the help of hotel security, entered his room about 9 a.m. and found Schuller semiconscious on the floor between the bed and the balcony. He later slipped into a coma, Nason said.

The surgery was performed at Free University Hospital in Amsterdam.

Schuller’s travel plans, which included an audience Wednesday in Rome with Pope John Paul II, are uncertain pending further medical evaluation, aides said.

Schuller, who began preaching on a snack stand to a drive-in congregation, has risen to become pastor of the Crystal Cathedral, part of the Reformed Church of America, and a national television ministry worth an estimated $75 million.