(#2003-3472) - Topics this issue: 1) Time online, not too good news, ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 12 Jan 2003 04:18:41 -0000 From: "bgs4ver" Subject: Time online, not too good news This is a multi-part message in MIME format. ------=_NextPart_000_001F_01C2B9F1.B035D4D0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Family gathers at bed of ailing Maurice Gibb Jacqui Goddard, Miami =20 =20 =20 FAMILY and friends of the Bee Gees singer Maurice Gibb were = gathering at his bedside in Miami early today as his condition worsened = amid fears that he had suffered brain damage.=20 The 53-year-old collapsed at his home in Florida on = Wednesday with a suspected intestinal blockage. He suffered a heart = attack the following day before undergoing emergency surgery for his = abdominal condition.=20 Initially it was believed the signs were good that he would = recover but, as his twin brother Robin flew in from Britain last night, = he remained unconscious in the Mount Sinai Medical Center.=20 A family friend said doctors now fear he may have suffered = brain damage as a consequence of the heart attack. "All his other organs = are in good shape, including his heart, and he has got colour coming = back, which is a hopeful sign," said the friend. "But basically he has = got to wake up. The longer this goes on the less hopeful we are = becoming."=20 Another friend, however, said the singer was on a respirator = and that his family would have to decide how long he should remain on = life support.=20 A statement from the hospital said his condition was = critical but stable. It added: "We all have him in our prayers."=20 Among the dozen members of the singer's family and friends = at the hospital were his wife Yvonne and son Adam, 26, and mother = Barbara, 80. His brother Barry, 56, who lives in Miami and has been at = the hospital since he was admitted, looked drawn and red-eyed.=20 The acute stomach pains that led to Gibb's hospital = admission are said to have been caused by a strangulated hernia. He = collapsed at his =A32m home in a private waterfront estate on Miami's = Sunset Island.=20 His Los Angeles-based manager, Carol Peters, said: "It was = completely out of the blue. No pains or anything beforehand, just all of = a sudden, boom."=20 The family asked for time to allow his condition to = stabilise before friends could visit. There were some reports that he = had once opened his eyes and squeezed the hand of his 22-year-old = daughter Samantha.=20 Michael Jackson, the singer, who is in Miami working with = Barry Gibb, had asked to visit but his request was declined by the = hospital.=20 As the family awaited Robin's arrival on a flight from = London, many visitors were seen leaving in tears, including the singer's = son Adam.=20 As a member of the Bee Gees, Gibb has been one of the = best-known faces in British show business for the past four decades. He, = Robin and Barry started their singing careers in the 1950s, earning = their name from a previous incarnation as the Brothers Gibb.=20 Following a spell in Australia, where they gained their = first recording contract, they returned to Britain in 1967 to critical = acclaim. Their distinctive, close-harmony singing has been their = trademark throughout the years and survived musical fashion and family = rifts.=20 Their hits include the soundtrack to the film of the disco = phenomenon Saturday Night Fever in 1977 and a sequel, Stayin' Alive, in = 1983.=20 Saturday Night Fever saw some of the group's most successful = tracks, such as Stayin' Alive, How Deep is Your Love and Night Fever. = One of their most successful collaborations was with the Motown legend = Diana Ross for the song Chain Reaction in 1986. The following year they = again topped the charts with You Win Again.=20 Their last album together was in 2001, entitled This is = Where I Came In. They were each made CBEs in the 2002 new year honours = list and were still drawing sell-out crowds at Wembley last year.=20 Maurice, the bass guitarist and keyboard player in the = group, met his first wife, the singer Lulu, in a BBC canteen. They = married in 1969 but later divorced. Speaking in Los Angeles after he was = admitted to hospital, Lulu said: "I'm deeply shocked and upset."=20 Maurice has been dealing with alcohol and health problems = since at least 1973, when he was convicted of drink-driving in Aberdeen, = fined =A340 and banned from driving for a year. "I needed a drink in the = mornings just to function," he said. "Barry and Robin were afraid my = drinking would destroy the group."=20 In 1980 he had to be carried down the steps off a = Washington-bound Concorde at Heathrow after he became "unsuitable for = travelling" after 90 minutes of drinking champagne.=20 Gibb's condition is not the first time similar symptoms have = struck the family. Fifteen years ago his youngest brother Andy, 30, was = admitted to hospital in Oxford with severe stomach pains while staying = with Robin. He died three days later of myocarditis, a heart condition. = He had been treated for cocaine and alcohol addiction.=20 Maurice said last year that he had given up drinking a = decade ago. "I've never lived a better life," he said. =20 =20 ------=_NextPart_000_001F_01C2B9F1.B035D4D0-- ------------------------------ End words@brothersgibb.com Digest [01/12/2003 00:02] ----------------------------------------------------