Former President Carter out of surgery, no complications

Carter has fallen at least three times this year, and the first incident in the spring required hip replacement surgery.

• By Jay Reeves and Shameka Dudley-Lowe/The Associated Press

(Atlanta) — Former President Jimmy Carter was recovering Tuesday following surgery to relieve pressure from brain bleeding linked to recent falls.

A statement from a spokeswoman said there were no complications from the procedure, performed at Emory University Hospital for a subdural hematoma, or blood on the brain surface.

Carter, 95, will remain in the hospital for observation, said Deanna Congileo, his spokeswoman at the Carter Center.

The statement said the Carters thank everyone for the many well-wishes they have received, and Congileo doesn’t anticipate making more announcements until he’s released.

It was unclear how long Carter might be hospitalized, said his pastor, the Rev. Tony Lowden.

“If anybody can make it through this Jimmy Carter can. His will to serve is greater than his will to give up,” said Lowden.

The Carter Center said the bleeding was related to Carter’s recent falls. He used a walker during his most recent public appearance.

The first fall, in the spring, required hip replacement surgery. He hit his head falling again on Oct. 6 and received 14 stitches, but still traveled to Nashville, Tennessee, to help build a Habitat for Humanity home shortly thereafter. And he was briefly hospitalized after fracturing his pelvis on Oct. 21.

Carter’s wife of 73 years, Rosalynn Carter, is with him at the hospital, Lowden said. “She won’t leave his side,” Lowden said.

Carter has been through a series of health problems in recent years.

He received a dire cancer diagnosis in 2015, announcing that melanoma had spread. After partial removal of his liver, treatment for brain lesions, radiation and immunotherapy, he said he was cancer-free.

Despite being increasingly frail health, the nation’s oldest-ever ex-president still teaches Sunday school about twice monthly at Maranatha Baptist Church in his hometown of Plains in southwest Georgia.

The church asked for prayers for Carter and his family in a message on its Facebook page. The church has announced that Carter will not be teaching his Sunday school class this week.

Carter candidly discussed his own mortality on Nov. 3, during his most recent appearance at their church. Referring to his cancer diagnosis, Carter said he assumed he’d die quickly after finding out the extent of his illness.

“Obviously I prayed about it. I didn’t ask God to let me live, but I just asked God to give me a proper attitude toward death. And I found that I was absolutely and completely at ease with death,” he said.

Since then, Carter said he’s been “absolutely confident” in the Christian idea of life after death, and hasn’t worried about his own death.

 

(Atlanta) — Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter was admitted to a hospital on Monday evening for a surgery to relieve pressure on his brain, caused by bleeding due to his recent falls, his spokeswoman said.

The procedure is scheduled for Tuesday morning at Emory University Hospital, Deanna Congileo said in a statement.

Carter has fallen at least three times this year, and the first incident in the spring required hip replacement surgery. He traveled to Nashville, Tennessee, and helped build a Habitat for Humanity home after getting 14 stiches following a fall on Oct. 6. And he was briefly hospitalized after fracturing his pelvis on Oct. 21. He received a dire cancer diagnosis in 2015 but survived and has since said he is cancer-free.

Nearly four decades after he left office and despite a body that’s failing after 95 years, the nation’s oldest-ever ex-president still teaches Sunday school roughly twice a month at Maranatha Baptist Church in his tiny hometown of Plains in southwest Georgia. His message is unfailingly about Jesus, not himself.

Rev. Tony Lowden, Carter’s pastor, said the ex-president was hospitalized Monday on what he called “a rough day.”

“We just need the whole country to be in prayer for him,” Lowden said in a telephone interview.

The church has announced that Carter will not be teaching his Sunday school class this week.

Carter is resting comfortably, and his wife, Rosalynn, is with him, Congileo said.