* Mandela released from hospital
* Keyhole checks revealed nothing seriously wrong
(Releads with Mandela discharged)
By Ed Cropley
JOHANNESBURG, Feb 26 (Reuters) – Former South African
President Nelson Mandela was discharged from hospital on Sunday
after a keyhole abdominal examination showed there was nothing
seriously wrong with the 93-year-old anti-apartheid leader, the
government said.
“The doctors have decided to send him home as the diagnostic
procedure he underwent did not indicate anything seriously wrong
with him,” President Jacob Zuma’s office said in a statement.
His departure from Pretoria’s “1 Military” hospital in a
multi-vehicle motorcade marks the end of an anxious 24-hour wait
for South Africa’s 50 million people, after Mandela was admitted
on Saturday morning with “long-standing abdominal pain”.
The government insisted throughout there was nothing to
panic about.
Defence Minister Lindiwe Sisulu said Mandela had had
“investigative laparoscopy” – a tiny camera inserted into the
abdomen – and denied reports he had undergone surgery for a
hernia.
“It wasn’t the surgery that has been out there in the media
at all,” Sisulu told a media briefing in Cape Town. “He’s fine.
He’s as fine as can be at his age – and handsome.”
Continued…
