Former president Václav Havel recovering

Former president Václav Havel is recovering at home after being released from hospital on Thursday morning. Mr Havel spent more than two weeks in hospital after complications arose following the removal of a growth in his throat that was causing the president difficulties breathing and swallowing. It was only after his recovery that doctors admitted Mr Havel faced the gravest threat to his health yet.

Václav Havel with his wife Dagmar, photo: CTK

“I would like to thank my wife and my guardian angel. I would also like to thank those citizens that wrote me letters and were interested in my condition.”

That was former President Václav Havel speaking to the press as he finally left Prague’s Motol hospital, more than a fortnight after being admitted with difficulties breathing and swallowing. Doctors removed a growth from his throat, but soon faced complication relating to Mr Havel’s lungs filling with mucus. This is how Dr Martin Holcát, assistant to the head of Motol Hospital described the situation afterwards.

“The situation was more critical and serious than had ever been before.”

The complications severely weakened Mr Havel who has a history of lung related problems and who had most of his right lung removed following a cancer diagnosis in 1996. In the days spent at hospital, a gradual rehabilitation regime was undertaken to get Mr Havel moving again and restore his strength. Once Mr Havel was deemed to have regained sufficient strength, doctors decided that he could be released. However, they remain extremely cautious about the risk of an infection – a flu or a cold could prove dangerous in Mr Havel’s current state. Martina Pelichovská, a chief surgeon at Motol put it this way:

“What he must now do is avoid any contact with the wider population so as to prevent the risk of catching any kind of flu.”

Václav Havel is no stranger to concerns over his health, nor is the former dissident who endured imprisonment and constant harassment by the former communist regime likely to simply fold in the face of such challenges. As when the then President Havel was hospitalized in 1996 with lung cancer, or when the president underwent emergency colon surgery two years later, fears for his safety and survival have been acute – but Václav Havel has once again proven to be a defiant survivor.