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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Tuesday, November 18, 2003

Pete Smith on road to recovery

By Wes Nakama
Advertiser Staff Writer

Former Kalaheo High School boys basketball coach Pete Smith is awake and alert, but still not able to verbally communicate in his recovery from colon cancer surgery and an ensuing heart attack on Oct. 31.

Smith, 49, was unconscious for more than a week after suffering the heart attack. But Chico Furtado, a close friend and longtime former assistant coach, said Smith was awake during his entire 90-minute visit on Sunday at Straub Clinic and Hospital's intensive care unit.

"He still doesn't have all his senses back and he doesn't talk, but I think he's aware of who's in there and he'll respond to things," Furtado said. "We have a basketball that was signed by his 1985 state championship team, and at one point I held it and pump-faked a pass to him, and he raised his arms (as if to catch it). He smiles more, and his facial expressions are much more animated than before."

Furtado said there "probably was not one particular day" when Smith suddenly woke up.

"I think it was more a slow, gradual process," Furtado said. "I'd compare it to a person coming out of an amnesia state, trying to remember things piece by piece."

Smith guided Kalaheo to state titles in 1985, 1995 and 2001.

Reach Wes Nakama at wnakama@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-2456.