Imported User:
Former South African President Nelson Mandela has been given a clean bill of health and left hospital yesterday after a minor diagnostic procedure, allaying fears over the beloved nonagenarian’s health.
The former president was hospitalised on Saturday for a keyhole operation to investigate persistent abdominal discomfort, raising the alarms about the man revered as the symbol of South Africa’s post-apartheid reconciliation.
The Agence France Presse (AFP) also quoted the Office of South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma as saying in a statement that, “The doctors have decided to send him home as the diagnostic procedure he underwent did not indicate anything seriously wrong with him.”
Presidency spokesman, Harold Maloka , also said Mandela, 93, was recovering at home in the leafy Johannesburg suburb of Houghton, where he returned last month from his childhood village in the Eastern Cape, some 800 kilometres (500 miles) from the country’s economic hub.
“He is resting with family,” Maloka told the AFP.
Mandela underwent a diagnostic laparoscopy, a procedure in which doctors make small incisions in the abdomen to probe it with a tiny camera.
Shortly before his discharge was announced, Zuma said Mandela, known affectionately as Madiba, was relaxed and comfortable after his night’s stay in hospital and was surrounded by his family.
“The doctors have assured us that there is nothing to worry about and that Madiba is in good health,” Zuma said.
Officials moved quickly to announce Mandela’s hospitalisation and to issue updates on his condition, reassuring that it was a planned procedure and not an emergency admission.
Add new comment