Mending Schuller Thanks Well-Wishers

The Rev. Robert H. Schuller was alert and active Saturday as the Garden Grove-based televangelist continued to recover from emergency brain surgery in Amsterdam, a spokesman for the minister said.

The 64-year-old host of the internationally syndicated “Hour of Power” television show pulled himself up by using a bar suspended from his bed, was inquisitive about his surroundings and seemed more talkative, spokesman Michael Nason said. He also sat up in bed and ate his breakfast, according to a press release from the Crystal Cathedral.

Schuller responded to the hundreds of daily get-well messages flooding Amsterdam’s Free University Hospital and his home base, the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, said Nason, who quoted Schuller as saying, “Thank all the people for all their love and prayers.”

Notable well-wishers have included President Bush and his wife, Barbara, the Rev. Billy Graham, the Rev. Norman Vincent Peale and several senators and congressmen, Nason said. Schuller’s wife, Arvella, may extend another thank-you today to the congregation that gathers at the Crystal Cathedral’s regular Sunday services--if the church’s sound system can be rigged to broadcast her phone call, Nason said.

Schuller underwent the emergency surgery Monday for a blood clot that formed on his brain after he bumped his head getting into a car. On Thursday he was reported in guarded condition when doctors discovered swelling and residual blood deposits between his brain and skull, but medication brought about improvement by Friday.

Nason said doctors told Schuller’s family that Schuller’s type of injury is fairly common.

“They said it’s not that unusual in a man his age,” he said. “It was explained to us that as people age their brain shrinks some and creates a void (between the brain and skull) and, if they hit their head, it can cause hematoma.”

Nason said he expects doctors to give Schuller an estimate on total recovery time Monday. Despite his progress, Schuller remained in the intensive care unit Saturday, Nason said. If the evangelist’s health improves enough by 11 a.m. today, Schuller probably will watch a prerecorded local airing of his “Hour of Power” show, Nason said.

The show is seen on 145 stations in 31 countries, according to officials at the Crystal Cathedral, where Schuller heads a 10,000-member congregation. Officials at the cathedral say the broadcasts and four regular Sunday services will go on as scheduled.

When the accident happened, Schuller was en route to Moscow, where he planned to deliver a tape-recorded sermon for Soviet television.

Times correspondent Michael Glennon in Amsterdam contributed to this story.