CHICAGO — UPDATE Aug. 31, 2021: The wife of Rev. Jesse Jackson was moved out of the intensive care unit and into a regular room at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where she continues to receive oxygen treatment for COVID-19, according to a family statement provided to WLS.
Read the original report:
The Rev. Jesse Jackson has been moved to a physical rehabilitation center and his wife was transferred into an intensive care unit as they continue to receive treatment for COVID-19 issues, the civil rights leader’s family said Friday.
Jackson, 79, and his wife, Jacqueline Jackson, 77, were hospitalized at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago last week, WGN-TV reported, citing a statement from the coalition. Jesse Jackson is the founder and president of the organization.
In a statement, the family said that as Jesse Jackson has recovered from COVID-19, the symptoms of his Parkinson’s disease have “become more in focus,” WLS reported. Because of that, he has been transferred to the Shirley Ryan Ability Lab for intensive occupational and physical therapy, the television station reported.
The Rev. Jesse Jackson, Sr. has been moved to rehab and his wife Jacqueline to the ICU as they are treated for COVID, his family said. https://t.co/FbXGQPL0XW
— ABC 7 Chicago (@ABC7Chicago) August 27, 2021
Jacqueline Jackson, meanwhile, was moved to an ICU unite at Northwestern Memorial, WGN reported. She is not on a ventilator but is receiving increased oxygen, the television station reported.
Jonathan Jackson, one of the couple’s five children, said his father’s COVID-19 symptoms are waning.
“Both of our parents are continuing to receive excellent medical care,” Jonathan Jackson said. “We urge that you continue to keep them in your prayers because we know this is a serious disease.”
Jesse Jackson received his first dose during a publicized event where he urged others to receive the vaccine. He told The Associated Press on Tuesday that Jacqueline Jackson, also a civil rights activist, had not been vaccinated. He said his wife di not receive a vaccine because she has a “preexisting condition” that had caused some concern.
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He did not elaborate, the AP reported.
Jesse Jackson, who was born in October 1941 in Greenville, South Carolina, was hospitalized for abdominal discomfort in February, the Greenville News reported.
Jackson underwent surgery after a routine medical observation, the newspaper reported. In 2017 he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, CNN reported.
A protege of Martin Luther King Jr., Jackson has been a civil rights activist for more than a half-century. In 1996 he merged his National Rainbow Coalition and Operation PUSH organizations into the Rainbow PUSH Coalition.
Jackson was a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984 and 1988.
In 1965, Jackson went to Selma, Alabama, to march with King and became a worker in the civil rights leader’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference, according to Brittanica.com.
Jackson was in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968, when King was assassinated at the Lorraine Motel.
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