Osbourne still on ventilator

Ozzy Osbourne has been able to speak with his family and hospital staff now that he’s breathing for limited periods on his own, but his doctor said Monday that the 55-year-old British rocker isn’t ready to be taken off the ventilator for good after his Dec. 8 all-terrain vehicle accident in England.

“With each day he becomes less dependent on the ventilator,” Wexham Park Hospital medical director Dick Jack said Monday. “It is still too early to take him off entirely. Otherwise he is well, with no complications.”

One British tabloid quoted wife Sharon Osbourne saying that the star of the MTV series “The Osbournes” had stopped breathing, that his heart had stopped for a minute after the accident and that a security guard had resuscitated him.

Osbourne got more good news over the weekend after the new single he recently recorded with daughter Kelly, a new version of the song “Changes” by Black Sabbath, debuted at No. 1 on the British singles chart.

Randy Lewis