Former Czech President Milos Zeman, 79, was discharged from the Motol University Hospital in Prague yesterday, where he had been hospitalised since mid-March after an operation to remove a blood clot in his leg, hospital director Miloslav Ludvik told journalists.
“Zeman can still be considered a fragile patient, but his health condition has been developing satisfactorily,” the doctors said.
“Current laboratory findings are favourable. The ex-president is able to walk with a walker as his condition is improving. The treatment and plan of care for the following period have been set,” reads the press release.
“Our goal is to get him back to being able to walk at least as comfortably as he previously was,” said Pavel Kolar, head doctor of the rehabilitation clinic. He added that Zeman would not go to Slovakia before Saturday’s presidential election, as planned.
Internal clinic head doctor Radan Keil said the aim of the hospitalisation was to stabilise the patient’s condition internally and to switch him from infusion drugs and nutrition to conventional drugs, which he would receive by mouth.
Kolar said Zeman would undergo a medical check this week.
“The emphasis will be on rehabilitation. We believe that the President will soon be able to return to his normal routine as before his hospitalisation,” said Boris Stastny, a doctor from the Respimed clinic whose doctors and nurses are taking care of Zeman during his home care.
After the surgery to remove a critical blood clot in his leg, doctors had to perform two incisions to the cover of muscles (fasciotomies) on Zeman, who suffers from diabetes, due to swelling in his leg. After a few days of hospitalisation, they were able to gradually close both wounds.
However, blood clots in the legs can recur, which doctors are trying to prevent with treatment.
Zeman has been hospitalised several times in recent years, spending nearly 50 days in the Central Military Hospital (UVN) in Prague after the 2021 general election. At the time, doctors described his condition as very serious and justified the need for his care on the grounds of complications related to a chronic illness, which they did not specify.
At the time, Senate Speaker Milos Vystrcil (ODS) announced that according to the hospital’s opinion, Zeman was unable to perform any work duties for health reasons, and the prognosis for his health was extremely uncertain.
A book about the period around Zeman’s hospitalisation in 2021, entitled “Conspiracy”, is to be published in April. Its author, Lubos Prochazka, a journalist and Zeman’s aide, told CTK that the book’s launch had been postponed from the originally planned 16 April to 24 April due to Zeman’s health.
