14 DAY TRIAL // The first concrete sign of improvement in Lamar Odom’s condition has appeared: the ex-NBA star was hospitalized on Tuesday in a coma after a drug overdose and had been in such dire condition that insiders told the media he was dying.
He has now woken from the coma, spoken to estranged wife Khloe Kardashian and has been taken off the respirator and is able to breathe on his own, E! News reports.
Lamar is finally awake
Inside sources tell the celebrity publication that, some minutes ago, Lamar opened his eyes, looked and smiled at Khloe, who hasn’t left his bedside in days, and even spoke to her. He reportedly whispered a “Hey baby,” gave a thumbs-up and then drifted to sleep.
Given earlier reports that he might have suffered brain damage from the several strokes he had whilst in hospital, that he had multiple-organ failure and that he was showing no signs of waking from the coma, this is excellent progress.
“The source also said he is no longer using a breathing tube. Another source told E! News on Friday afternoon Odom is speaking and functioning,” the e-zine notes.
Still, TMZ says, he is not out of the woods just yet. There is some talk that, even with this improvement, Lamar might never be able to lead a normal life again, because of the damage sustained with the overdose.
A drug binge like no other before
As Lamar’s basketball career took a nosedive in around 2011, his drug addiction flared up. In December 2013, after more than a year of speculation about the state of his marriage, Khloe filed the divorce papers because she couldn’t get him to understand that he needed rehab.
Reports in the media said that he would vanish for days while he went on drug binges, whilst resisting the idea that he had a problem for which he needed professional help. Khloe eventually gave up on him, but not for good - and proof of that is in the fact that they’re still legally married because the divorce never went through.
Last Friday, Lamar checked into a Nevada brothel on his own, spending a fortune on a VIP suite, drugs and the company of 2 ladies around the clock. In the early hours of Tuesday, he became irate and kicked the girls out, which is when he probably took a large dose of cocaine.
He had already taken too many herbal supplements for Viagra and the combination proved near-fatal.