ACTIVISTS END 48-DAY FAST FOR HOMELESS

FENNELLY HOSPITALIZED WITH LOW BLOOD PRESSURE

Twenty friends and members of the Community for Creative Non-Violence crammed into Carol Fennelly's bedroom yesterday to help her break her 48-day, water-only fast. Advocate for the homeless Mitch Snyder handed her a plastic cup of apple juice and Fennelly took her first sip of nourishment in almost seven weeks.

"Oh, my God!" Fennelly said. "Does that taste good."

Moments later, paramedics arrived in a D.C. ambulance to take Fennelly to Howard University Hospital. They tested her blood pressure: 80 over "unmeasurable."

"It's no fun waking up every hour to go up and see if somebody's dead," said CCNV volunteer Henry Reisig, who monitored Fennelly at her home in Northwest Monday night. "If I go 12 hours without food, I have headaches that would kill a person. I'm just not a fasting type of guy."

Fennelly was one of eight homeless people and advocates -- including Snyder -- fasting since September to focus attention on the homeless during the presidential campaign.

But Fennelly, 39, a mother of two who ended the ordeal in by far the worst condition, was trying to make another point. Women, too, are leaders in the cause, she said, even though men such as Snyder, her longtime companion, get most of the attention.

The point was not lost on Snyder. For perhaps the first time in his career as the nation's leading agitator for the homeless, television and newspaper photographers recording yesterday's events told Snyder to get out of the way, so they could take pictures of Fennelly being carried to the waiting ambulance.

"No problem," Snyder said.

Snyder and six other protesters broke their fast later in the day at the CCNV's downtown shelter.

Dr. Vincent Roux, medical director at Howard, said Fennelly was nearing a critically dangerous stage when she was admitted yesterday. Her electrolytes, such as potassium and sodium, were out of balance, causing excessive stress on her heart. "When she came in this morning, her blood pressure was barely discernible," he said.

Fennelly was administered intravenous fluids to help her strained cardiovascular system. Roux said Fennelly probably will begin eating solid food today and will remain at the hospital for 24 to 48 hours, barring complications.

Earlier, in Fennelly's bedroom, Snyder had opened a pot of split pea soup he made the night before and sliced a loaf of sourdough bread sent by a friend in California.

The group clasped hands and recited the Lord's Prayer. Another weakening protester, Steve Sonnone, who had hobbled into the room on crutches, trembled in a chair. Stewart Guerney, a faster who was carried into the room because of gout in his ankle, winced in pain.

Fennelly, who had spent most of the night retching from the effects of starvation, dabbed at the pea soup with a small piece of bread and whispered to her friend, Suzie Goldman, "I told you I'd make it, Suzie."

Articles appear as they were originally printed in The Washington Post and may not include subsequent corrections.