LYNCHBURG, Va., (ABP) -Jerry Falwell's condition is improving after being hospitalized March 28, though doctors are still baffled why his lungs filled with fluid for the second time in a month.
Doctors at Lynchburg General Hospital upgraded his condition from critical to serious March 31 and said he is expected to make a full recovery. A tube that had been inserted to help him breathe was removed March 30.
Falwell, 71, was hospitalized in February with pneumonia, but doctors have ruled out pneumonia, as well as heart attack, as the cause for his present condition. Although his heart appears strong, doctors are investigating whether Falwell has coronary disease.
According to a Washington Post report, Falwell assistant Ron Godwin described him as alert, sitting up and speaking.
Falwell, senior pastor of the 20,000-member Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg, Va., has turned over the daily administration of the church he founded in 1956 to his son, Jonathan, and 15 other pastors. Turning more of his attention to expanding Liberty University, which he founded in 1971, he reclaimed the president's job in 2004 while remaining chancellor and chief executive.