Coma

The mother of Philadelphia opera singer Joy Simpson said today that she was "extremely grateful for all the concern" expressed for her daughter, who was stricken with a brain hemorrhage while performing on stage last week in South Africa. "Her condition is not good at all," said Evelyn Simpson in a telephone interview from the City Park Hospital in Cape Town, where her daughter remains in extremely critical condition. "The doctor has done all he could do. At this point, we'll just have to wait and see. " A hospital spokeswoman said that Joy Simpson was in critical condition and in a coma.

Death-row resident Gary Michael Heidnik pulled out of his coma at a Pittsburgh hospital yesterday and was reported in fair condition, officials said. Heidnik regained full consciousness yesterday afternoon, said State Correctional Institution at Pittsburgh spokesman Tom Seiverling. His condition at West Penn Hospital was upgraded from serious to fair, Seiverling added. Heidnik, 45, gobbled a secretly stockpiled batch of his prescribed tranquilizer, Thorazine, last weekend in the prison, where he awaits execution for murdering two of the six women he had chained in his basement.

Welterweight contender Oscar Diaz had surgery for bleeding on the brain and was in a coma after collapsing between rounds of a nationally televised bout in his hometown of San Antonio. The 25-year-old fighter was taking a beating from Delvin Rodriguez on Wednesday night at Municipal Auditorium when he collapsed on his stool before the 11th round. Ron Katz, a matchmaker for Star Boxing, which promoted the fight, told the Associated Press that Diaz was in a coma and not breathing on his own after the surgery.

A Taiwanese girl who has been in a coma since a 1984 accident in which she nearly drowned will receive a cash payment of $36,373 plus $1,000 a month for life under an agreement reached yesterday in Chester County Court. The parents of the victim, Yi-Chen Chen, accepted the settlement during a conference in Judge Robert S. Gawthrop's chambers. Should Yi-Chen die, the agreement stipulates that the monthly payments be made to her estate for up to 20 years. Gawthrop said the agreement also calls for the payment of medical and legal expenses.

Gerald McClellan says he wants to fight again. He's blind, and the doctors thought he was deaf but it turns out his ears are all right, just sometimes his brain doesn't get the message, and he can't walk without assistance. "He was talking about his next fight," said Lisa McClellan, second of three sisters caring for the brain-damaged former WBC super-middleweight champion. McClellan was one of boxing's rising young stars until Feb. 25, when the pain in his head forced him to one knee and he lost to Nigel Benn.

Prospects for the recovery of soul crooner Luther Vandross remained doubtful yesterday. Since suffering a massive stroke at home on April 16, the singer has been in a coma in the intensive-care ward at Weill Cornell Medical College in Manhattan. Vandross, who turned 52 on April 20, developed pneumonia last week and was given a tracheotomy on Wednesday to facilitate his breathing, a spokeswoman for the singer's label said yesterday. Doctors took precautions to safeguard the three-time Grammy-winner's vocal cords, she said.

An eight-month-old baby is dead and his mother is in a coma after what Ridley Township police say appeared to be a murder-suicide attempt. Amy Beyers, 29, was found unconscious with her baby boy in the bed of their Sixth Avenue home on Wednesday. Beyers' mother, who lives with her, discovered them around 4 p.m. and called police. Beyers and her baby were taken to Taylor Hospital, where the infant was pronounced dead. Beyers was transferred to Crozer-Chester Medical Center, where she was in a drug-induced coma on Thursday, said Lt. Scott Willoughby of Ridley Township police.

He has sucked on a grape lollipop, rested in the arms of his parents and, as he recovers in his hospital crib, has improved from critical to serious condition. But doctors said yesterday that in addition to his right arm, Tyler Olson has lost as much as a quarter of his brain's cerebellum to surgery, and the nature of his recovery may not be known for many months. During a press briefing yesterday, doctors at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital said that the New Jersey boy whose right arm was bitten off by a wolf-dog hybrid had gradually emerged from a seven-day coma and was slowly improving.

Little Tyler Olson is clinging precariously to life. The toddler, who underwent emergency brain surgery Wednesday night, remained in critical condition in a coma this morning, said Dr. Leonard Graziani, director of pediatric neurology at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital. "He has not awakened, nor is he alert," Graziani said. "He's still in a coma. "We would all have been delighted if Tyler had opened his eyes and looked around. But given all that Tyler has been through, it would be perhaps too much to ask. " While the four-hour brain surgery removed the immediate threat to Tyler's life, the boy's general condition "really is largely unchanged," Graziani said.

Sister Theresa's "class clown" is absent today. Her memory, however, is present. So chances are that when Sister Theresa's sixth-graders reported for the first day of school this morning at Ascension of Our Lord School, F Street and Westmoreland Avenue, they paused for a moment and said a few prayers for their absent classmate who liked to make people laugh. For almost a month now, Dawn Holloran, 11, has been lying in a coma in the intensive-care unit of St. Christopher's Hospital for Children.

Bee Gees star Robin Gibb's physician confirmed Sunday the singer has advanced colorectal cancer and remains in intensive care after waking from a coma. Andrew Thillainayagam said that when Gibb, 62, weakened by chemotherapy and surgery, contracted pneumonia and fell into a coma last week, he warned Gibb's wife and three children he might not come out of it. But Gibb is now fully conscious and able to speak, though "exhausted, extremely weak, and malnourished," Thillainayagam said.

PHOENIX - It will be a special Christmas for the family of a University of Arizona student who was nearly taken off life support before waking from a coma. Sam Schmid, 21, was walking and speaking Friday at a Phoenix hospital. Dressed in a T-shirt, shorts, and sneakers, he was able to use a walker and talk in brief sentences. "Right now, I'm feeling all right.. . . Except for the rehabilitation, I'm feeling pretty good," Schmid said. Doctors at Barrow Neurological Institute say Schmid has a long recovery ahead of him to regain full speech, balance, and memory abilities.

MANAMA, Bahrain - Abdulrahman al-Nuaimi, founder of one of Bahrain's leading opposition groups, died yesterday after more than four years in a coma, political leaders said. He was 67. Al-Nuaimi spent more than three decades in self-exile from the tiny Gulf kingdom because of tensions over efforts by Bahrain's Shiite majority to challenge the vast powers of Bahrain's ruling Sunni dynasty. He returned in 2001 after a series of political reforms and established the Waad party, a liberal bloc - now under fire - that reached out to both Shiite and Sunni reformers.

Serena Williams pulled out of the French Open on Thursday, a decision that was expected because the 13-time Grand Slam singles champion has been off the tour for more than 10 months. She hasn't competed since early July because of two foot operations and blood clots in her lung. She returned to practice last month. Her older sister, Venus , a seven-time major singles champion, is also doubtful for the clay-court French Open, which starts May 22. She hasn't played since January because of a hip injury.

A 23-year-old man shot in the chest by an off-duty Philadelphia police officer was in a medically induced coma Tuesday after sustaining severe liver damage, his fiancée said. The Monday afternoon shooting left the family and neighbors of Josh Taylor with many questions about the officer's actions, insisting that the officer was not provoked and shot Taylor in his own house in front of his children. The department remained tight-lipped about the incident in the city's East Frankford section.

At the Sun Center Studios in Chester Township yesterday, a "film-production party" and a day of workshops gave Philadelphia's aspiring filmmakers and screen writers a rare chance to mingle with Hollywood veterans. That's why Bucks County filmmaker Scott Randolph brought along 18th-Century re-enactors Justine Walters and a man who gave his name only as "Gen. George Washington. " The costumed actors helped Randolph pitch his latest project, a documentary called "America's First D-Day" about Washington's crossing the Delaware.

An eight-month-old baby is dead and his mother is in a coma after what Ridley Township police say appeared to be a murder-suicide attempt. Amy Beyers, 29, was found unconscious with her baby boy in the bed of their Sixth Avenue home on Wednesday. Beyers' mother, who lives with her, discovered them around 4 p.m. and called police. Beyers and her baby were taken to Taylor Hospital, where the infant was pronounced dead. Beyers was transferred to Crozer-Chester Medical Center, where she was in a drug-induced coma on Thursday, said Lt. Scott Willoughby of Ridley Township police.

Ridley Township police are trying to unravel the circumstances that left a baby dead and his mother in a coma. When police arrived at the woman's residence, in the 2100 block of Sixth Avenue, about 3:45 Wednesday afternoon, the 10-month-old infant wasn't moving and "there was blood everywhere," according to Lt. Scott Willoughby. The blood apparently belonged to the mother, who had wrist lacerations, he said. The baby, who seemed unmarked, was taken to Taylor Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Joan Rucker said her grandson, Zeke, is a serious young man, always with his head in a book. To relax, he likes to settle into a beach chair by the Atlantic Ocean. Two weeks ago, during a Cancun spring-break trip, the 21-year-old Rucker opted to hang out by himself poolside after friends returned to their hotel. What happened next in the early hours of March 14 is unclear, but Rucker eventually was found by a resort security guard, badly beaten. Rucker, of Sewell, remains in a coma in a Miami hospital with skull fractures and bleeding of the brain.