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Vandross Coma Breakthrough
Thu Jun 5, 6:20 PM ET Add Entertainment - E! Online to My Yahoo!


By Joal Ryan

Luther Vandross can't sing. And he can't speak. But first things first: The R&B crooner is showing signs of emerging from a stroke-induced coma.

"He's tracking. There are moments when he's alert, when he can actually shake his head 'yes' or 'no,' " Carmen Romano, the entertainer's business manager, said Thursday.

Romano called the activity "the first signs of awareness" since Vandross was found unconscious in his Manhattan apartment April 16.

Vandross, 52, remains in the intensive care unit of New York's Weill Cornell Medical Center, listed in critical but stable condition.

The hospital would not comment Thursday on Vandross' condition beyond the "critical, but stable" designation. Previously, the singer had been referred to as a "minimally responsive" patient.

That began to change one week ago Thursday--May 29, Romano said.

As a larger-than-usual contingent of well-wishers, including band members, looked on, Vandross opened his eyes. And, though he'd been doing that for weeks, there was something different.

"That night his awareness level jumped," Max Szadek, a Vandross assistant, tells People magazine. "He started turning his head more, responding with nods."

Romano, who was not present for Vandross' breakthrough, called the development "big." "I flew to New York when I heard this because this was major," the New Jersey-based manager said.

Still, there is a long road ahead for the singer. Vandross does not know what happened to him. Nor does he know his new album, Dance with My Father, with the title track dedicated to the parent he lost at age seven, is due out Tuesday.

He still requires a respirator. And he's not really, totally awake yet. Moments when Vandross is conscious "are fleeting moments," Romano said.

There is no timetable for his release from the ICU. "There is just no way for anybody to predict," Romano said.

During his hospitalization, Vandross has battled meningitis and pneumonia, the latter of which prompted doctors to perform a tracheotomy. The three-time Grammy winner's vocal cords were said to be unharmed by the procedure. (He won't be able to speak, however, until he's off the respirator.)

Through it all, his mother, Mary Vandross, has kept a hospital vigil for her lone surviving child, playing his own music for him at his bedside.

"Luther is going to be just fine," Mary Vandross told the Associated Press this week. "This is God's way of saying, 'You're tired.' "

Vandross' hits include "Here and Now" and "Always and Forever."