James Brady Critical After Cardiac Arrest : Illness: Doctors express hopes for his recovery. Former Reagan press secretary survived 1981 shooting, gave his name to gun-control crusade.

Former White House Press Secretary James S. Brady--who gave his name to the nation’s anti-gun crusade after he struggled to recover from devastating wounds inflicted during the 1981 assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan--was taken Tuesday morning to the emergency room of a suburban Washington hospital after suffering cardiac arrest while receiving dental treatment.

Brady was listed in critical condition late Tuesday night but a hospital official said doctors were “very hopeful” that he would recover.

“We don’t expect anything to change overnight,” said Christine Tea, an administrative nursing supervisor at Fairfax Hospital in the northern Virginia suburbs.

She quoted Brady’s wife, Sarah, as saying her husband had suffered no heart damage and she was hopeful he could be released in a few days.

According to a source familiar with Brady and his condition, the former White House official lost 10 or 12 teeth when he fell while visiting New York about four weeks ago and was taken Tuesday morning to an oral surgeon to repair some of the dental damage.

During that procedure, a doctor sedated Brady, causing his blood pressure to fall, the source said. When the doctor administered a drug to raise his blood pressure, Brady went into cardiac arrest, the source said.

Attempts to revive him failed, 911 was called, and he was rushed to the hospital, where officials say he arrived about 10:45 a.m.

Brady, who served as chief presidential spokesman during the Reagan Administration, has been mostly confined to a wheelchair since his remarkable survival after being shot above his left eyebrow during the assassination attempt.

Immediately after the shooting, he was declared dead on television but was rushed to George Washington University Hospital--where he underwent more than six hours of emergency surgery to remove the bullet fragments. After surviving the shooting and surgery, Brady endured years of intense and painful physical therapy to regain some bodily functions and experience a remarkable range of activities.

Crisscrossing the nation, Brady served as vice chairman of the National Organization on Disability and as co-chairman of the National Head Injury Foundation.

Along with his wife, Brady cited his ordeal as the inspiration for their becoming the nation’s leading advocates for handgun control--even lending his name to federal legislation, the Brady law, that requires a waiting period before buying a handgun.

Noted for his gregarious nature and wicked sense of humor, Brady told a Washington Post reporter in an interview that his injuries didn’t drain all the life from his body. “I entertain myself,” he said, tapping his cane against his wheelchair. “I think I’m a hoot.”