[img]2962|right|Ken Ruben||no_popup[/img]Two evenings ago just as I was putting Diane’s dinner in the oven at 6 o’clock, the telephone rang. Country Villa Mar Vista was on the line.
Our friend Ken Ruben, the transportation maven and man-about-town, had suffered abdominal spasms and been removed to Marina del Rey Hospital.
By the time we arrived in early evening, he had endured seizures, which the doctor said was not uncommon in the aftermath of a stroke seven weeks earlier.
Sedated, it was an ominous scene as he laid there in the brightly illumined emergency room, secured, one side stubbornly paralyzed.
By late yesterday morning, he had undergone a series of examinations without any disturbing findings.
At mid-afternoon, his personality was reawakening while rallying from the fog and clouds of a whirlwind 24 hours.
The hospital determined it was time for Mr. Ruben, known for his daily regional travels – via trains and buses – to move along.
Friends need a map to follow his hospital and nursing home travels.
Los Angeles Community Hospital, 4081 E. Olympic Blvd., East LA, his temporary home, is Mr. Ruben’s seventh posting.
His friends know that Mr. Ruben, 72 and a bachelor long without any surviving relatives, urgently needs emotional support to regain his old familiar footing.
