Fatigue causes Howe’s setback

Hockey legend didn’t suffer another stroke

WINDSOR — Medical tests have confirmed that Detroit Red Wings legend Gordie Howe did not suffer a stroke Monday and it is more likely a combination of fatigue and dehydration that led to the hospitalization of the 86-year-old man known simply as Mr. Hockey.

“He is responding and resting comfortably with family while in hospital currently,” Howe’s son Dr. Murray Howe said in a text message.

The Howe family believes that their father could be returning to his daughter Cathy’s home in Lubbock, Tex., within days.

Contrary to published reports, Murray Howe confirmed that his father is not in the intensive care unit.

It is known that Howe suffered a minor stroke Saturday and was unable to walk prior to this latest episode.

“He’s not walking at all,” Detroit Red Wings pro scout Mark Howe, Gordie’s son, said Sunday.

“His speech is very common. After his first stroke (on Oct. 26), within a week he was up and walking probably 40 or 50 feet. It took him quite a while.

“And the use of both of his arms was coming back pretty well.”

That changed when Howe suffered another significant stroke in early November.

“I know they did his first physical therapy about a week ago,” Mark Howe said.

“I was there and he tried standing twice over the course of about 20 minutes and it took just every ounce of energy he had. It totally drained him.”

In the latter stages of dementia and also plagued by chronic back pain from an old hockey injury, the main concern of the Howe family is that their father not suffer.

The four children have taken turns serving as caregiver to their father since his wife and their mother Colleen died of Pick’s Disease in 2009. “For us, it’s been that way since my mom passed,” Mark Howe said. “We moved him out of the home three to four months after mom passed.”

The decision was made last spring to move Gordie permanently to the warmer climates of sunny Texas, where he stays with his daughter.