Yankee Clipper Is Still Fighting

Joe DiMaggio slipped in and out of a coma Friday, again bringing family to his bedside for what could be a final vigil.

But the 84-year-old baseball great startled doctors with his resiliency. At one point, he awakened from the deep coma, moved his head and squeezed his doctor’s hand.

“It’s still a very dire situation,” Dr. Earl Barron said after visiting DiMaggio in the afternoon. “The whole thing could change in 15 minutes.”

Barron said earlier in the day that chances of recovery were slim after DiMaggio weakened from an “overwhelming” lung infection. But even the doctor seemed stunned by this latest turn.

“You won’t believe it, but he’s awake and he’s moving his head and grabbing my hand and squeezing it,” Barron said. “It’s completely unexpected. The coma that was present deeply this morning is just not there now.”

In the morning, Barron sounded far less optimistic about how long DiMaggio would live.

“I don’t know how long, but I would guess not very,” he said.

On a scale of zero to 10, with 10 being the best outlook, Barron said DiMaggio was at 0.5 in the morning and had improved to a 1 by afternoon.

Barron said DiMaggio’s fever, which had shot up to 102 degrees overnight, was down again. He did not give his exact temperature, but he said DiMaggio’s lungs sounded clear.

DiMaggio’s family--including his brother, Dom; grandchildren Kathy and Paula; and longtime friend Morris Engelberg--were at Memorial Regional Hospital.

“We’re near the end,” Engelberg said. “It’s a question of hours, perhaps days.”

The family was discussing whether to sign a “do not resuscitate” (DNR) order, which Barron said would allow DiMaggio to die with a “measure of dignity.”

The order would mean that should his heart stop, there would be no measures taken to restart it, Barron said. But he added that a DNR did not mean removal of the respirator that has helped DiMaggio to breathe since his Oct. 14 surgery for lung cancer.

“If he were taken off life support--off the respirator--I don’t think he would survive more than a half hour,” Barron said.

Engelberg and the family faced the DNR issue last weekend, and he said then he would not consider it. Barron said such an order would be a “unanimous” decision.

“It’s up to Dom, Paula and Kathy,” Engelberg said. “It’s horrible.”

Barron said DiMaggio has stopped responding to antibiotics for the lung infection.

“The central issue is the lungs--those are the things that really aren’t good and they’re causing us major problems right now,” said Barron, a cardiologist who has treated DiMaggio for five years.

At his morning news conference, Barron said DiMaggio became comatose during the last 18 hours and on Friday morning was unresponsive to stimulation.

He did say DiMaggio’s blood pressure and heart and kidney functions were good, and he was not in pain. However, a scan showed the pneumonia more severe. That sent DiMaggio’s temperature soaring, a repeat of the troubling fever he had last weekend.

DiMaggio entered the hospital Oct. 12 and had a cancerous tumor removed from his right lung two days later.

Since the surgery, DiMaggio has had serious setbacks and stunning improvements--his doctor characterized it last week as “two steps forward and one back.”

Fluid was drained from his lungs several times and his blood pressure dropped so rapidly on Nov. 16 that a Catholic priest was summoned to administer last rites.

On Dec. 3, when Barron temporarily adjusted the breathing tube in DiMaggio’s throat, DiMaggio said, “I want to get the hell out of here and go home.”

DiMaggio’s 56-game hitting streak in 1941, one of the greatest feats in all sports, is still a record, and his marriage to Marilyn Monroe in 1954 elevated his place in American culture.

He was voted into the Hall of Fame in 1955, four years after his retirement, and in 1969 was chosen as the greatest living baseball player.

DiMaggio played in 11 All-Star games and 10 World Series in 13 seasons with the New York Yankees. He was a two-time batting champion and a three-time most valuable player.

He has guarded his privacy intently since his retirement from baseball in 1951, and information about his condition has been tightly controlled since he entered the hospital, which has a wing named in his honor, Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital.

His last public appearance was Sept. 27, when he was honored at Yankee Stadium and received replicas of nine championship rings that were stolen from his hotel room three decades ago. The Yankees had wanted him to throw out the ceremonial first pitch at the World Series, but by then, he was in the hospital just north of Miami.

He marked his 84th birthday in the hospital on Nov. 25, surrounded by family, including his brother and two great-grandchildren.

“I’m sure that he would want his fans to know that he would certainly love to recover,” Barron said, “but I’m not certain that that’s going to happen.”