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Nov 12, 2008 6:24 pm US/Central
Father Greeley Fights For Survival After Bad Fall
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
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Father Greeley remains in intensive care having survived six days after he fell getting out of a cab.
CBS
Chicago is praying for a legend in the church Wednesday night. Father Andrew Greeley fell and hit his head while exiting a cab over the weekend. Right now he is in critical but stable condition. CBS 2 Chief Correspondent Jay Levine reports.
Andrew Greeley is an author and academic, a columnist and commentator. A priest and patron of a church he doesn't hesitate to criticize. But tonight the headlines Andrew Greeley made with his views on church and state have been replaced by hospital reports on his fight for survival.
At Advocate Lutheran General Hospital, Father Greeley remains in intensive care having survived six days after he fell getting out of a cab at the CTA Blue Line stop in Rosemont trying to avoid last Friday evening's rush.
"There were two people who saw the incident occur and came to his aid almost immediately, one of whom was an EMT from California," said Father John Cusick.
Cusick, who's joined family members at Greeley's bedside all week, says those good Samaritans and some very talented emergency room physicians saved his life. A life Greeley lived to the fullest, rising every morning at 4 a.m. to write, usually working on three books at once, and always drawing on life in Chicago as a model.
County Assessor Jim Houlihan was once an altar boy and student of Greeley's.
"I took him over to East Bank one evening to show him the setting and he said, 'Oh, I can't wait to put this in one of my books," Houlihan said.
He's written 250 books: fiction, non-fiction, even photography. With the profits, he has given back to the Archdiocese where he was raised, educated and ordained a priest.
"I hope this helps. God bless you and everybody else in this school," Greeley said.
While devoted to the church, a close friend of Cardinal George, he's never been a blind follower of its leadership.
"Andy is one of those people who challenged us in grammar school, he challenged the hierarchy of the church and always have been on target," Houlihan said.
"The left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing," Greeley said.
He's never pulled punches, minced words or ducked a battle. But tonight, as he fights for his life, friends believe he's relying on his faith.
"Andy Greeley is the kind of a man who puts his life in God's hands and I would say right now it's the hand of God that's holding him," Cusick said.
If there was one church expert you could always trust to give you the street scoop, it was Andy Greeley. And boy, could he tell a story. Both his friends gathered at Lutheran General, and most of us in the media, hope he will again.
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