Tutu in hospital again
ARCHBISHOP Emeritus Desmond Tutu was admitted to hospital on Monday night for inflammation, unrelated to a previous illness that also put him in hospital.
This is the third time Tutu, 83, has been admitted to hospital since last month.
Tutu’s daughter, Canon Mpho Tutu, yesterday briefed the media on her father’s condition, and said doctors wanted to keep him in hospital for observation.
Tutu was expected to be released in the next few days, Mpho said.
On July 6, Tutu was admitted to a Cape Town hospital for treatment of a persistent infection.
On July 19, he stopped receiving intravenous treatment for the infection.
On July 28, Tutu was readmitted to a Cape Town hospital for observation.
“Bouncing back from an illness is not as easy as it once was. His doctors assure us that he is strong, but not young, and so the series of treatments he had over the years have had an impact on the elasticity of his body and his ability to recover from an illness.
“We are holding this briefing to keep everyone informed and making sure that people are not anxious about his wellbeing. We are of course concerned. If we were not concerned, he would not be in hospital. But that is ‘concerned’, not ‘panicked’ and not ‘anxious’, she explained.
“My mom would much rather have him at home so that she could feed him his favourite foods and cuddle up, but she is making the trek back and forth to the hospital, and spending time with him there. The doctors wanted to keep him for observation for at least another 24 hours,” Mpho said.