Franco's Final Battle

Few people admire a fighter more than the Spanish, who prize la valentia y el coraje (valor and mettle). This is why even his foes voiced respect for Generalissimo Francisco Franco last week. Three-and-a-half weeks ago, Spain's frail, 82-year-old Caudillo suffered a heart attack that would probably have killed most men. Yet neither that nor a chain reaction of complications that followed broke the dictator's grip on life. Franco's physicians and the Spaniards who gathered outside the Pardo Palace to pray or wait had no doubts about the outcome of the autocrat's last battle. But all agreed that, in high Spanish style, he was waging a heroic fight.

The last battle began in mid-October when Franco left a Cabinet meeting with what his doctors described as a mild flu. Then, when Franco canceled several meetings, rumors began to churn. Finally, to quash talk that he had died, palace spokesmen admitted that he had suffered a heart attack.

From then on, Franco's condition worsened. Within two days doctors confirmed that the dictator was suffering from congestive heart failure, the lessening ability of his weakened heart to pump blood. Next, he showed signs of pulmonary edema, the accumulation of fluid in the tiny air sacs of the lungs. Then, reported the doctors, Franco, who remained conscious, began to hemorrhage, or bleed, internally and to suffer from both a loss of intestinal activity and ascites, an accumulation of fluid in the peritoneal cavity.

Throughout the next week, Franco alternately rallied and faded closer to death. Then last week the doctors decided to act. With no choice and hoping that el Caudillo was strong enough to withstand surgery, they had him wheeled from his bedroom to the infirmary of his personal guard's barracks, 200 yards from the palace, for an attempt to halt the massive internal hemorrhaging. In a three-hour operation, Dr. Manuel Hidalgo Huerta, an old friend, removed one bleeding ulcer from the wall of Franco's stomach and tied a large gastric artery that carries blood to the stomach wall. Franco was also given two gallons of blood, more than replacing his entire blood volume.

Physical Capital. Franco, whose chief doctor put the odds against his survival at 100 to 1, withstood the operation well and seemed to show signs of recovery. But by mid-week he sustained yet another series of setbacks. Phlebitis, a vein inflammation that almost killed him last year, developed in his left thigh. Then in a reaction to the various physical breakdowns in his system, Franco's kidneys failed, and toxins began building up in his blood.

Franco's doctors, who numbered 26, placed him on a kidney dialysis machine, which removed the toxins. At week's end they rushed him back into the hospital to remove at least 80% of his stomach to halt recurrent hemorrhaging. But beyond that, there was little that the physicians could do for the rapidly failing dictator except administer digitalis, a commonly used heart-stimulant, to try to overcome his cardiac congestion, and antibiotics, to help fight infection. Anticoagulants, which would normally be given to counteract Franco's phlebitis, were probably ruled out because of his internal hemorrhaging. Diuretics, which would help him pass off excess fluids, would not be effective because of his kidney failure.

In the end, then, all that kept Franco alive was his stubborn determination. The Franco family has a history of longevity (Franco's brother Nicolas is 84; his sister Pilar 81; his father, a navy officer, died at age 86). Most, however, attributed the old soldier's survival to his own qualities. "Franco is one of those people who have a strong will to live," said one physician. "He's accumulated a lot of physical capital over the years, and that is what has been keeping him going." But, added the doctor, "right now I'd say he's living on his rents."

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