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CNN Today

Doctors Say Reagan Doing Very Well

Aired January 15, 2001 - 2:07 p.m. ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

NATALIE ALLEN, CNN ANCHOR: Well here in the U.S., doctors say former president Ronald Reagan is doing very well, two days after undergoing hip replacement surgery. Mr. Reagan, who turns 90 next month, will stay in a Santa Monica hospital for at least another week.

CNN's Jim Hill is keeping an eye on the former president's condition.

He joins us now -- Jim.

JIM HILL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Natalie, we're getting some very encouraging news on a couple of different fronts, a couple of different areas they watch very closely when a person comes out of surgery of this nature.

First of all, the president apparently has his appetite back. He began eating yesterday after undergoing over an hour of surgery on Saturday. A very good sign, we're told.

Also, the former president is taking very little pain medication. That means he must be relatively comfortable.

Also he was able to sit up yesterday. Late yesterday, we understand, he was able to sit with assistance in a chair. And actually according to doctor who watched this, the ex-president seemed to enjoy the effort in doing that and was quite pleased with himself. So those are very good signs.

Now, earlier today, the doctor who did this operation on Saturday used a mock-up of a hip drawing a black line on this area to show where the break was and showed how a large pin was put into the hip, that pin held in place in turn by a metal plate, and that plate would be screwed into the upper leg bone or the femur. He said this operation went very well -- the president seems to have come through it just fine. And also indicated that on the long term the president probably has some positive things working for him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. KEVIN EHRHART, ORTHOPEDIC SURGEON: He's very strong. He's a very, very strong man. He's been through multiple major problems, and he's overcome them. So his constituency is very good. Second, he has an enormous support staff, the support environment: His wife is there all the time with him, his nurses the agents. He's got a home environment that he's very familiar with.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: The challenge, of course, is a daunting one still. The former president does suffer, as we know, from Alzheimer's disease diagnosed in the early 1990s, publicly revealed by the ex-president in 1994. It is a continually deteriorating process he goes through that will continue to take place, of course, and will be an ongoing challenge in his therapy, which could take up to a year in attempts to gain full mobility in the hip area.

But of course, he has the former first lady Nancy Reagan at his side. As one person said, she is virtually glued to his side. And that will be a big plus for him as we heard as he continues his process toward rehabilitation.

I'm Jill Hill, CNN, reporting live from Santa Monica, California.

ALLEN: So he's doing well. Many would doubt that Ronald Reagan is a trooper when it comes to these matters. And you said the recovery will be long. Is he expected to be able to walk on his own again, unassisted?

HILL: Well, that will be a big question mark. It's quite common in these cases that a person of Mr. Reagan's age -- he's 89 years old, he'll be 90 years old about three weeks from now, February 6th, I believe -- in-- a person this age, many of them never recover, never have a full use of that leg or hip again.

Limited mobility may be the best they can hope for. And as I say, in some cases, people never really have much mobility after that. Now, the president -- the former president -- does have a lot going for him in terms of the support the nurses the nurses and so forth, and overall, as we heard from the doctor, his overall physical constitution -- this is independent of the Alzheimer's, which affects primarily his mind -- his physical constitution remains quite strong, much stronger than one would expect for someone 89 years of age.

So his prognosis in that regard is probably better. But it's still a big question mark because it could be a year, possibly even a longer, before all of the physical therapy is done and we learn the answer to that question.

ALLEN: Jim Hill, in Santa Monica, thanks so much.

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