Jimmy Carter, the 98-year-old former President of the United States, will spend his remaining years in hospice care with his family, according to an announcement by his charity on Saturday.
The charity created in the former president’s name said on Twitter that “after a series of short hospital stays, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter today decided to spend his remaining time at home with his family and receive hospice care instead of additional medical intervention.”
It added that “he has the full support of his family and medical team. The Carter family added that he “asks for privacy at this time and is grateful for the concern shown by his many admirers.”
Hospice care is provided for people facing terminal illness who are expected to have six months or less to live and focuses on quality of life and reducing pain while attending to the patient’s needs, according to the Mayo Clinic.
Carter has suffered from multiple health complication in recent years, including a brain bleed in November 2019 that required surgery, a urinary tract infection in December 2019, multiple falls in 2019 along with a bout of cancer in 2015.
The last former president to pass away was former President George H. W. Bush, who died in 2018. Carter became the 39th U.S. president when he defeated former President Gerald R. Ford in 1976. The Democratic president served a single term and was defeated by Republican Ronald Reagan in 1980.
In 2015, speaking at the Carter Center, the former president said that a cancer diagnosis had him believing that he had ‘just a few weeks left.’
“I came back to Emory and they checked me over and in the process, they did a complete physical examination and the MRI showed there was a tumour on my liver,” Carter said back in August 2015.
“They did a biopsy and found out it was indeed cancer and it was melanoma and they had a very high suspicion then and now that the melanoma started somewhere else on my body and spread to the liver.”
“I came back to Emory and they checked me over and in the process, they did a complete physical examination and the MRI showed there was a tumour on my liver,” said Carter back in August 2015.
“They did a biopsy and found out it was indeed cancer and it was melanoma and they had a very high suspicion then and now that the melanoma started somewhere else on my body and spread to the liver.”
Melanomas are cancers that begin in the melanocytes, which are responsible for producing melanin. Cancer that spreads to the liver from melanoma is known as liver metastasis.
Carter had liver surgery that turned up more problems: Brain cancer.
“That same afternoon [as his liver surgery] we had an MRI of my head and neck and it showed up already in four places in my brain,” he said.
“This is the hands of God my worshipper and I’ll be prepared for anything that comes,” he added.
Between August 2015 and February 2016, Carter underwent more surgery, radiation therapy, and a new kind of immunotherapy treatment with the drug pembrolizumab.
In March 2016, President Carter said “he did not need any more treatments, which he had August 2015 through February 2016, but will continue scans and resume treatment if necessary.”
It is remarkable that President Jimmy Carter has made it to age 98 years old. But the announcement today by the Carter Center indicates that the former president may not have much time left.
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Source: Becker News Rephrased By: InfoArmed