ROL:

The 91-year-old leader of the Satmar Hasidim is conscious, breathing on his own and out of intensive care, having survived a medical crisis that seemed to have brought him to his last days.A former aide who has been staying at Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan with Moses Teitelbaum, the Satmar grand rebbe, said today that the spiritual leader was transferred from the intensive-care unit to a private suite on Sunday, once he no longer needed a respirator.”A big miracle happened,” said Moshe Wertheimer, the rebbe’s former butler.The rebbe’s precipitous health decline on March 30 had spurred preparations for his death. Family members rushed to his bedside, as police in Orange County and New York City revisited plans to manage the tens of thousands of mourners likely to attend funerals for the Satmar leader in Brooklyn and Kiryas Joel.Teitelbaum is still taking antibiotics for the infection that began the crisis. But his one remaining kidney “” which failed in the midst of his sudden health problems “” has resumed functioning, said Wertheimer, who expects the rebbe to return home within two weeks.