A year after hemorrhage, Johnson making progress

WASHINGTON -- The last thing Sen. Tim Johnson remembers about Dec. 13, 2006, is arriving at the hospital in an ambulance. After that, his memory begins to fade.

The South Dakota Democrat suffered a brain hemorrhage that day, setting off a furious round of speculation about whether the balance of Congress would shift. Senate Democrats had just won a one-vote majority in the November elections, and the senator's death could have passed control of the chamber back to Republicans.

But Johnson held on.

He survived life-threatening surgery that night, oblivious to the political speculation and the TV camera trucks surrounding George Washington University Hospital. He emerged from a medically induced coma a month later, and has fuzzy memories of the Super Bowl and the State of the Union address in the weeks that followed.

"I had dreams about being other places but I wasn't fully conscious," Johnson said in an interview in his Senate office. "It was strange when (my wife) Barbara and the family told me what a deal it had been."

A year later, Johnson, 60, is settling back into his Senate routine and preparing to run for re-election. His speech is slurred, but has improved noticeably since he first returned to work in September. His right side is weak and he uses a scooter to travel long distances in the Capitol. He can walk, though, and increasingly uses his cane to get around his office and his home.

As weeks pass, Johnson appears increasingly comfortable in interviews and conversations. He hasn't missed a vote yet, despite some long nights in the Senate.

Johnson, who is also a cancer survivor, says his doctors are amazed at his recovery.

"My therapist says I'm a miracle," he says.

Dr. Michael Yochelson, the director of Brain Injury Programs at Washington's National Rehabilitation Hospital, who has overseen Johnson's recovery, said the senator's progress has been remarkable.

"When he first came to us you could barely understand what he was saying," Yochelson said. "It wasn't that he didn't know what to say, he just couldn't get it out. He has gotten much more fluent."

Yochelson, who has regular visits with Johnson, said he believes the senator's speech and physical condition will continue to improve, which could be helpful as Johnson prepares for a rigorous re-election campaign next year.

There was some speculation that Johnson wouldn't run, but he says he is committed to staying in the Senate. Campaigning in the state could be difficult, made tougher by South Dakota's wide open spaces and tendency toward bitter, contentious Senate races in recent years. Johnson won re-election against Republican John Thune in 2002 by just 524 votes, and Thune defeated Tom Daschle in another close race two years later.

Republicans have yet to field a well-known candidate and residents appear, for now, to be mostly forgiving of the physical weaknesses that keep Johnson from returning to the state as often as he used to.

"We'll see," Johnson says of the rigors of campaigning. "I'm prepared for it. I make reasonable accommodations for it. I don't think there will be problems."

Johnson's hemorrhage was an arteriovenous malformation, a condition that causes arteries and veins in the brain to grow abnormally large, become tangled and sometimes burst. He says he had no idea he had the condition before he fell ill last year.

He says he remembers everything about that day before he arrived at the hospital. He first became disoriented on a conference call with reporters, when he started to stutter and couldn't get the right words out of his mouth. He wrapped up the call, and walked to the Senate subway with some of his staff. At that point, he started to realize something was wrong.

"I couldn't speak, and I thought that was strange," he says.

His staff quickly called doctors and he was rushed to the hospital in an ambulance.

"Upon arriving at the ER I was conscious, but I don't remember very much after that."

Drey Samuelson, Johnson's close friend and chief of staff for 22 years, remembers it well. Doctors told him and Johnson's family there was a 15 percent chance the senator wouldn't survive the emergency surgery.

Samuelson said the group, which included incoming Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and former South Dakota Sen. Daschle, sat together for several hours through the surgery, waiting for news from a doctor who would come through the waiting room doors with frequent updates.

"Any time that door moved my heart would be in my throat," recalled Samuelson.

The doctors eventually brought good news -- Johnson had survived the surgery and his condition appeared to be under control. In following days, fluid developed in his lungs -- another life-threatening condition. He was kept sedated and on a ventilator for several weeks.

Johnson was upgraded from critical to fair condition in January. He spent the next eight months recovering in hospitals and at home.

Almost a year later, Johnson says he is thankful. He plans to spend Dec. 13 as a quiet day with his wife, though he may have votes in the Senate. The day before, he will speak to reporters on his first conference call since the one on which he fell ill.

"My speech is not 100 percent but the doctors say I will get there. ... I'm frustrated by the fact that I can't get around as much but that too is improving," Johnson says. "I am thanking God for the result and I'm determined to make this a second chance at life."

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On the Net:

Sen. Johnson's Web site: http://johnson.senate.gov/