Topline
Former President Jimmy Carter has entered hospice care at home, according to a statement released by the Carter Center on Saturday, after a series of short hospital stays.
Former President Jimmy Carter will receive hospice care, according to his charity.
Highlights
Carter, 98, chose to “spend his remaining time at home with his family” and receive palliative care instead of further medical intervention, according at the Carter Center.
Carter has the full support of his family and medical staff, added the charity, which “requests confidentiality at this time and is grateful for the interest shown by his many admirers”.
The former president has suffered from health issues in the past, including melanoma which spread to his liver and brain in 2015, although doctors announced later that year that he was cancer-free, according At Washington Post.
Surprising fact
Carter, who served as president from 1977 to 1981, lived longer than any former president in US history after leaving the White House. Carter lived just over 42 years after leaving office on January 20, 1981.
Key Context
Carter, a former Georgia peanut farmer, served one term as Georgia governor and four years in the state Senate before claiming the Democratic presidential nomination in 1976. Carter served one year in office after serving narrowly defeated President Gerald Ford, although he suffered low approval ratings (35%) throughout his tenure. He then lost to Republican Ronald Reagan in a landslide election in 1980. After leaving office, however, Carter was praised for his work with his charity, The Carter Center, while helping to build thousands houses for Habitat for Humanity. Carter has remained a presence in modern politics despite being out of public view throughout the pandemic, suggest in 2019 that former President Donald Trump was illegitimate “because the Russians intervened on his behalf”.
This is a developing story and will be updated.