AP Features, October 24th, 2007
Singer and actor Robert Goulet is heavily sedated and breathing through a respirator in a Los Angeles hospital while he awaits a lung transplant, his wife Vera told The Associated Press.
"He can hear me but he can't respond," Vera Goulet said Tuesday.
Vera Goulet, speaking by phone from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, said the last time the couple spoke was two weeks ago when the 73-year-old was hospitalized in Las Vegas, where they live.
"He said, 'Just give me a new pair of lungs and I'll hit the high notes until I'm 100,'" said Vera Goulet, who spent their 25th anniversary at his bedside Oct. 17.
"I told him I loved him. He told me he loves me. He was ready to have the tube inserted. And he said, 'Just watch my vocal chords.'"
The singer fell ill when flying home to Las Vegas after performing at a Sept. 20 concert in New York state, she said.
He got weaker until he had to be rushed to the hospital Sept. 30, she said.
Goulet was diagnosed with a form of pulmonary fibrosis that his official Web site described as a "rapidly progressive and fatal condition." He was transported to Cedars-Sinai as a transplant patient Oct. 13.
Vera Goulet said doctors told her the planned lung transplant was the most successful operation of any transplant, with a success rate of 88 percent.
"God willing, if we proceed with this, our doctors feel that there's no reason he will not have at least 15 years of life doing what he does, going back on stage and singing," she said. "That's very encouraging."
Goulet has won acclaim for a Broadway career that took off after his debut performance as Sir Lancelot in "Camelot" in 1960.
Goulet won a Grammy Award in 1962 for Best New Artist and a Tony Award in 1968 for his role in "The Happy Time."
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On the Net:
Robert Goulet's Official Web site: http://www.robertgoulet.com
