The Miami Herald from Miami, Florida • 47

Executives Anatomy of a stroke: The case of Eli Timoner By MARTIN MERZER Herald Business Writer Eli Timoner sits a bit stiffly in his new office at Air Florida now his left arm folded at the elbow and resting on his lap A wheelchair is nearby so is a nurse Timoner looks a bit older than he did before a bit drained But the smile is the same and on the wall there is a sign with a hand-drawn Air Florida symbol: back Eli From the folks in res reservations" And Eli Timoner the founder and chairman of Air Florida is back back to work back to his family back from a stroke that he was fortunate to survive a way" he says a very lucky man not dead and not going to be impaired physically or mentally in any way What a stroke can do to someone is much worse than what has happened to i me Although his left arm and leg are still paralyzed he has full command of the rest of his body His mental and verbal capacities are- unaffected And he says he is lucky in another way too Timoner cites many examples of support from his family and friends during his struggle but one stands out in his memory It involves his daughters Andrea and Rachel was in physical therapy and my two little girls nine and 12 would come to Mount Sinai while I was working on the mat with the Timoner tells a visitor His voice is getting low now and he is pausing between his words they would get on the edge of the mat and try to assist me and He go on But later Lisa Timoner finishes the story about her husband and her daughters kids would be a little out of reach and they would hold out their hands as a she says and now she is speaking haltingly too would hold out their hands and say me Daddy Reach out for my hand Daddy Touch in me Last week Timoner finally returned to his office which has been moved from the second floor to the first floor of Air headquarters west of Miami International Airport That makes it easier for him to get in and out The nurse drives him to the office Timoner uses a four-legged metal walker to negotiate the few yards from the car to the office He doesn't work very hard or very long The idea is to get back into the routine slowly Timoner has turned over his duties as chief executive officer to Donald Lloyd-Jones a veteran airline executive who joined Air Florida as president a month before Timoner was sidelined Timoner retains only the title of chairman and he will concentrate on cash management and long-term strategy That represents another frustration for an executive who likes to man the controls this moment after stepping out of the hospital and being sick for as long as I was not able to step back in and be he says travel as much as like to and I have to spend too much of my bodily energy on recovery" Timoner endures two hours of physical therapy every night and it is paying off He has regained some feeling in his arm and leg Given some time he can walk down the stairs from his second-floor bedroom to the first floor of his home in Kendall He says his doctor has assured him that he will regain most of the use of his arm and leg and he should be able to once again enjoy the two-mile jog that he and his wife took every morning The experience quite obviously has changed his life But Timoner says it is not entirely for the worse After devoting the major portion of his life and energy to business Timoner is working on a new balance you become aware of is each mortality and the fact that things can change and that your life can turn upside down he says "I hope I can train myself to work differently As intense as I am about Air Flbrida I am a very strong family man have lovely children and a great wife and getting the benefits from those relationships now planted the right seeds" Timoner is tired now and it Is time to rest But there is one more story he wants to tell his visitor a story he promised his son David 8 that he would tell It seems that David uncertain how to deal with the sudden serious illness of his father originally told his schoolmates that Timoner was away on a business trip But this week he brought home a composition he had written in school turned in an essay saying that his father had been sick but was going to be better Timoner says his eyes filling with tears said that we were going to play football again together after the first of the year told me true going to be running by February and then going to play football MAR ICE COHN Miami Herald Staff Eli Timoner and from left David 8 wife Lisa Rachel 12 Andrea 9 and family friend Patti It came as it always does without warning and at a bad time One moment Timoner was getting dressed after his weekly massage The next moment he was lying on the floor of the locker room He feel his left leg or arm the hell is happening?" he thought It was Saturday July 10 a bright sunny day Timoner recalls Although he is an extremely intense businessman Timoner says he was under no particular strain had a light step that he says was feeling very very good about things" But now he was lying on the floor of a locker room at the Doral Beach Hotel He had suffered a stroke and a few minutes later he was being rushed to Mount Sinai Medical Center No one could believe it He was only 53 years old: he ran two miles every day played tennis and was in Although many Air Florida officials came to visit and share some news of company developments Timoner felt a keen sense of loss He had created the airline 10 years ago and built it into a company that had sales of $304 million last year Now as the company was encountering considerable economic trouble it lost $304 million during the first half of this year and its operations were being curtailed it was being run by others And they tell him everything became very upset by the fact that I up to speed on what was going on in the company" he says was told that on the orders of the doctor a full quota of information was probably incorrect because what I needed most was to devote my mind to thoughts of tme physical shape his blood pressure and cholesterol levels were in the ideal range am not the typical stroke profile except for the fact that an intense person in everything I do" he says But there he was resting in the emergency room Lisa who also had been at the hotel's health club that Saturday was by his side just remember him lying there saying cry please Lisa Timoner says I stop The doctors said that the stroke had resulted in some swelling on the right side of Timoner's brain but no bleeding There was concern that he could be devastated by another stroke but that didn't happen And although surgery was con sidered for several weeks it ultimately was ruled out as unnecessary it hit him" says Lisa Timoner the terrible thing happened everything turned in his But that still left Timoner with the difficult frustrating sometimes painful job of rehabilitation The man who just weeks before had commanded thousands of employes now command his left leg to move to the proper place have to train yourself to put an equal amount of weight on your left leg as your right he says hard to do because you put your weight down on something that feel the He remained in the hospital for observation and rehabilitation from July 10 until Sept 15 The Miami Haratd Novambar 8 1 982.