Jimmy Carter’s wife Rosalynn has entered hospice treatment at home, the former first lady joining the 99-year-old ex-president in end-of-life care at the couple’s Georgia residence, her family said on Friday.
The news came in a brief statement released by the human rights non-profit Carter Center, on behalf of Jason Carter, the grandson of the 39th president and his 96-year-old wife.
“Former first lady Rosalynn Carter has entered hospice care at home,” the statement said. “She and President Carter are spending time with each other and their family. The Carter family continues to ask for privacy and remains grateful for the outpouring of love and support.”
Rosalynn Carter – who married her husband in 1946, more than three decades before they entered the White House after the Democrat won the 1976 general election – was diagnosed with dementia in May, the Carter Center announced at the time.
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Jimmy Carter, a one-term president and former Georgia governor who became a respected international diplomat after leaving office, entered home hospice care in February after declining further medical intervention for a number of health issues.
He had a mass removed from his liver in 2015, later declaring he had melanoma that had also spread to his brain. He announced he was cancer free later that year after radiation and immunotherapy but suffered a series of falls, resulting in hospital care for bleeding on the brain, and had a hip replacement aged 94.
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The Carter Center has been silent on Rosalynn Carter’s health since its May statement, in which it paid tribute to her renowned mental health advocacy.
“Mrs Carter has been the nation’s leading mental health advocate for much of her life. We recognise, as she did more than half a century ago, that stigma is often a barrier that keeps individuals and their families from seeking and getting much-needed support,” it said.