Thursday, January 22, 2009

Vaclav Havel Is Making Progress, Risks Remain



Prague - The health condition of former Czech president Vaclav Havel, who is hospitalised with pulmonary troubles, has slightly improved again, but the risk of infection has not been definitively averted, public Czech Television (CT) reported today, referring to doctors.

TV cites Martina Pelichovska, head doctor of the anaesthesiological-resuscitation (ARO) clinic in the Prague-Motol Teaching Hospital, where Havel is being treated.

She said it is still hard to say whether Havel's condition cannot deteriorate again. This is why she refused to anticipate when Havel would leave the ARO.

Havel, 72, underwent a minor surgery to remove inflammation in the throat last Monday.

His post-operative recovery was complicated by phlegm in the right lung lobe. The inflammation then spread to the left lung last Friday.

Havel's right lung lobe got clogged last Saturday, but an intensive rehabilitation helped treat the problem. However, the complications recurred on Monday morning, afflicting the right lung lower lobe that got partially clogged.

Havel's condition improved thanks to intensive rehabilitation and inhalation as well as the administration of another type of antibiotics.

Havel is being treated by a team of dozen medical experts from various fields and hospitals.

Pelichovska told CT that the former president undergoes breathing rehabilitation regularly.

Havel has had health problems for many years. In December 1996 he had a malignant tumour removed from his lung.

In 1998 his life was threatened for some time after a colon surgery.

Havel, a former chain-smoker who had an untreated pneumonia when he was imprisoned as a dissident under the previous regime, has suffered from chronic bronchitis and heart problems.

Last time he was hospitalised about one year ago. He was treated for an acute bronchitis complicated with heart arrhythmia in the Prague Institute of Clinical and Experimental Medicine (IKEM) at the turn of January and February 2008.

Havel, playwright, thinker and former anti-communist dissident, was Czechoslovak president from the fall of the communist regime in late 1989 until mid-1992 and Czech president from 1993 until 2003.

Author: ČTK
www.ctk.cz

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