DALLAS (Reuters) - Grammy award-winning country music singer Randy Travis has suffered a stroke and is undergoing surgery at a hospital in the Texas city of Plano to relieve pressure on his brain, a spokesman for the singer said late on Wednesday.
Spokesman Kirt Webster said the singer's family and friends were with him at The Heart Hospital Baylor Plano, located north of Dallas, and that they requested the prayers and support of his fans.
"As a complication of his congestive heart failure, Mr. Randy Travis has suffered a stroke and is currently undergoing surgery to relieve pressure on his brain. He is in critical condition," Webster said in a statement.
Webster did not specify what type of stroke the 54-year-old singer had suffered.
The announcement came just hours after doctors spoke publicly for the first time about his condition, saying the singer had been responding to treatment three days after being hospitalized for a heart condition caused by a virus.
Travis was suffering from cardiomyopathy and congestive heart failure when he was admitted on Sunday, his doctors said.
Cardiomyopathy weakens and enlarges the heart, making it difficult for the heart to pump, and can lead to heart failure.
His publicist had said on Tuesday that Travis had undergone a procedure to place a device in his heart to help it pump on its own.
A six-time Grammy award winner known for hits such as "Forever and Ever, Amen" and "Three Wooden Crosses," Travis has received an outpouring of well wishes from country music stars and his fans.
The singer, who lives in the North Texas community of Tioga about 60 miles north of Dallas, was in excellent health until three weeks ago when he developed a viral upper respiratory illness, one of his doctors said.
Legal troubles have put Travis in the spotlight in the past year. He was arrested after Texas state troopers found him lying naked in the road near his crashed car almost a year ago. He pleaded guilty to drunken driving and was sentenced to two years probation and ordered to serve 30 days at an in-patient alcohol treatment facility.
(Additional reporting by Edith Honan; Editing by Will Dunham)