RICHMOND, Va. (ABP) — Cecil Sherman, former Cooperative Baptist Fellowship national coordinator, suffered a massive heart attack April 15, and is currently in critical condition in Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center in Richmond, Va.
Sherman's daughter, Eugenia Sherman Brown, described his condition in a blog update April 16 as "very grave, but not hopeless."
"If he survives the next several days, they will be able to offer some prognosis," she said.
Brown said her father suffered what physicians are calling a "massive heart attack" while getting his car washed. Paramedics resuscitated him. The first hours at the hospital were "volatile" she said, with numerous interventions and finally an induced coma with a breathing tube. He is now in the hospital's cardiac intensive care unit.
"All of us in the CBF family are praying for Cecil and his family," said Fellowship Executive Coordinator Daniel Vestal. "We hold them in our hearts and ask for God's grace and strength for them in this time."
Sherman, 82, was the first coordinator of the Fellowship, serving from 1992 through 1996. His pastoral ministry spanned decades, including pastorates at Broadway Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas, and First Baptist Church in Asheville, N.C. Sherman, whose wife of 54 years — Dorothy "Dot" Sherman — died in August 2008, was diagnosed with acute leukemia in July 2008. He is the visiting professor of pastoral ministries at Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond, a CBF partner seminary.
For more updates visit http://www.cecilsherman.com/news.html.
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Carla Wynn Davis writes for CBF Communications. Bob Allen contributed to this story.