JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (ABP) — Evangelist Billy Graham is recovering in a Jacksonville hospital after partial hip-replacement surgery Jan. 6, according to a story in the Florida Times-Union.
Billy Graham Evangelistic Association spokesman Larry Ross said Graham, 85, fell during the night in a hotel room on the grounds of Jacksonville's Mayo Clinic, where he was receiving a routine check-up. When he could not get out of bed the next morning, Graham was taken to St. Luke's Hospital. There, doctors determined he had broken his left hip. The evangelist underwent an operation later that day and is expected to make a full recovery.
According to Ross, Graham still plans to announce his 2004 schedule of crusades this month.
“He will have sufficient time for healing and therapy to maintain his ministry as planned,” said Ross. “He has said he has no plans to retire until God retires him.”
Graham has been a Mayo patient more than 50 years. For the past 10 years he has made the trip from his North Carolina home to Jacksonville twice a year to receive treatment for Parkinson's disease.
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