Print Story
E-mail Story
Apr. 24, 2004. 01:00 AM
STAR COLUMNISTS
> Miro Cernetig
> Graham Fraser
> Richard Gwyn
> Stephen Handelman
> Chantal Hebert
> James Travers
> Ian Urquhart
> Thomas Walkom
Lightfoot wants to give gift of music
Gordon Lightfoot wants to present McMaster University Medical Centre with a gift of music, a special benefit concert in Hamilton this fall to thank the hospital and its staff for saving his life.
It's been almost 20 months since a burst abdominal artery struck down the legendary Canadian folksinger shortly before a concert in his hometown of Orillia. Lightfoot, 65, is now in the final stages of a lengthy recovery and making plans to restart his career.
They include a special concert, likely at Hamilton Place, with proceeds going to the hospital where a team of surgeons performed life-saving surgery to stem the blood flooding his abdominal cavity.
Lightfoot spent three months in the medical centre after the September, 2002, surgery. For six weeks of the time, he was in a coma. He has returned there many times since for follow-up surgeries, procedures and therapy.
"Apart from having a degenerative disease, it's about the worst that can happen to you," Lightfoot said of his near-fatal emergency. "It kills just about everybody. Some people are dead within five hours."
Lightfoot told the Hamilton Spectator this week he hopes to be well enough to perform a few select concerts in southern Ontario by the end of the year.
"And I would add a show dedicated to McMaster hospital at Hamilton Place," Lightfoot said. "And I would try to do that maybe in the late fall."
TORSTAR NEWS SERVICE
|