Indiana Governor passes away

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CHICAGO, Illinois (CNN) -- Indiana Gov. Frank O'Bannon died Saturday, his spokesman said. The governor was 73.

 

O'Bannon, who was in his seventh year as governor, died at 11:33 a.m. EDT in the neurointensive care unit of Northwestern Memorial Hospital, five days after suffering a massive stroke, according to a written statement from his office.

 

O'Bannon suffered the stroke Monday and has spent the week in critical condition and on life-support in Chicago, where he had been attending a conference.

 

On Wednesday, lawmakers asked Indiana's Supreme Court to declare Lt. Gov. Joe Kernan the state's acting governor after doctors said O'Bannon was incapable of functioning as governor.

 

O'Bannon's condition worsened early Saturday, when swelling of his brain increased, the statement said. His vital signs became unstable, his blood pressure dropped and his heart rate slowed, the statement said.

 

"Based on the governor's living will, First Lady Judy O'Bannon and the family decided to use no further means of support and care and the governor died naturally," the statement said.

 

O'Bannon wished to donate his organs. His body will be taken to Indianapolis on Saturday night.

 

The two-term governor, a Democrat, served from 1989 to 1996 as lieutenant governor under Evan Bayh, now a U.S. senator. He had served the previous 18 years as a state senator from Corydon, representing all or part of eight southern Indiana counties, according to the biography on his Web site.

 

During his early years as a lawyer, O'Bannon also worked at the newspaper his family owns, The Corydon Democrat, shooting photographs, covering general news, writing sports stories and folding the paper's sections for delivery. O'Bannon wrote the newspaper's editorial on John F. Kennedy's assassination.

 

At about 9 a.m. Monday, an aide tried to reach O'Bannon by phone and then by knocking on the door of his room at the Palmer House Hilton Hotel in Chicago.

 

When he got no answer, the aide summoned a hotel security guard, who opened the door and found O'Bannon on the floor of a closet -- unconscious but breathing, said Dr. Patrick Connor, who was working in the emergency room where paramedics brought O'Bannon a few minutes later.

 

Within two hours, O'Bannon was in surgery, Connor said.

 

O'Bannon recently underwent his annual physical, spokeswoman Mary Dieter said.

 

"The doctor pronounced him not only with a clean bill of health, but said he wished he were as healthy."

 

O'Bannon had been in Chicago since Sunday with Kernan to attend the Midwest U.S.-Japan Conference, said Andrew Stoner, the governor's deputy spokesman.

 

 

 

This has actually hit rather close to home, because my Dad, who works at the Indiana Statehouse was hired by O'Bannon in 1987. He's been an associate of O'Bannon's ever since, so my Dad's pretty upset. My thoughts and prayers are with his family.