FW 'is very relaxed'

2006-06-09 21:20

Cape Town - Hospitalised former president FW de Klerk is recovering well, his family said on Friday.

"He's very relaxed at the moment and everyone is very positive, and it seems as if we're over the worst and now it's just the road ahead," De Klerk's eldest son, Jan, told Sapa.

Earlier, addressing the media at the Panorama medi-clinic, De Klerk's wife Elita said her husband was doing "much better".

Reading a prepared statement, she said it was with "great relief" that she could make this announcement.

"According to x-rays there has been a significant improvement in his lungs," she said. "He is still on a ventilator and is under sedation but the prognosis is good."

She said De Klerk's children from his first marriage, Jan, Willem and Suzanne, as well as her son Vassos had all been at his bedside as he recovered from surgery.

The family thanked the "thousands" of people in South Africa and across the world who had expressed concern and remembered him in their prayers.

In a separate statement, the hospital said doctors were happy with De Klerk's progress over the past 24 hours.

"The patient is still on a ventilator but a process of weaning him off the ventilator is in place," spokesperson Melissa Rademan said.

De Klerk had a cancerous tumour removed from his upper colon on Saturday, and had a second operation on Thursday when he developed respiratory complications.

The hospital said on Friday he had been discharged from the intensive care unit and was being treated as a high-care patient in a private ward.

- SAPA