Former US President Jimmy Carter, 98, decided this Saturday to receive palliative care at home and give up the treatment he had planned after several hospital admissions, according to the Carter Center.
The former Democratic president (1977-1981) was diagnosed in 2015 with a melanoma that had spread to his liver and brain. The doctors considered that the cancer had been overcome at the end of that same year.
Carter was hospitalized multiple times in 2019 after taking a few falls. On one occasion he broke his hip and had to undergo surgery, and on another he required stitches in an eyebrow.
The Carter Center did not specify the specific possible cause of his most recent problems, beyond the generic factor of his advanced age.
"After a series of brief hospital stays, former US President Jimmy Carter decided to spend his remaining time at home with his family and receive palliative care rather than further medical intervention," the organization said in a statement posted on Twitter.
The former leader “has the full support of his family and his medical team. The Carter family requests privacy during this time and appreciates the concern shown by their many fans."
James Earl Carter, born in Plains, Georgia, on October 1, 1924, became president after serving as governor of his home state (1971-1975). In the White House, he succeeded Republican Gerald Ford, whom he defeated at the polls under the commitment to restore the confidence of American society in the Government after the Watergate scandal (1972-1975) and the Vietnam War (1955-1975). .
