Legendary writer Norman Mailer has been hospitalized for the second time in as many months for severe respiratory problems, and his children are now holding daily vigils at his bedside in the critical-care unit at Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan.
“He’s not in very good shape. It’s breaking my heart,” ex-wife Carol Mailer said yesterday.
“He went in this time because his lung collapsed. . . . They got the scar tissue out, and the surgery was successful.
“But I just don’t think he’s doing well. My heart is heavy,” she said.
Mailer, who was raised in Brooklyn and grew up to win two Pulitzer Prizes, was hospitalized over Labor Day in Boston for asthma.
But the 84-year-old dad “insisted on leaving the hospital to be at [daughter Maggie’s] wedding” Sept. 8, even if he was too weak to walk her down the aisle, said Carol Mailer.
An in-law at his home in Brooklyn yesterday said, “Everything’s fine. He’s recovering.”
Carol Mailer said: The kids are [at Mount Sinai] every day.
“Norman still has a huge spirit and is making jokes,” she said. “He was even thumb-wrestling.
“He’s an extraordinary man. He’s a fighter.”