Former First Lady of the United States Rosalynn Carter, 96, wife of former President Jimmy Carter, 99, received palliative care at her home, the family organization Carter Center said in a statement released Friday (17).
“She and President Carter are spending time together and with their family,” reads the text signed by Jason, the couple’s grandson. “The Carter family once again requests privacy and continues to be very grateful for the love and support.”
Last February, the family announced that the former president would also receive palliative care at home in the state of Georgia after a series of hospital stays.
Carter, a Democrat who ruled the US from 1977 to 1981, became the oldest living former US president in history following the death of George Bush in late 2018 at the age of 94.
In May, the family also informed the public that Rosalynn had been diagnosed with dementia. She and Jimmy are the longestmarried American presidential couple. The marriage took place in 1946, when he was 21 and she was 18.
Out there
The palliative care he is now undergoing does not mean that he will die soon, let alone that the medical team has given up on the patient. These are a series of comfort measures designed to relieve pain without subjecting the patient to invasive therapies.
The WHO (World Health Organization) recommends that palliative care involves multidisciplinary teams (doctors, nurses, psychologists, physiotherapists, nutritionists and occupational therapists).
The proposal is that together they promote quality of life, relief of disease symptoms and psychological and spiritual comfort for patients with serious chronic illnesses and their families.
Since leaving the White House, the couple has remained active in American society, particularly with humanitarian work through the Carter Center. Rosalynn also founded an institute bearing her name shortly after leaving the office of first lady, which aims to provide support and funding to Americans caring for elderly family members or others in need.
The initiative was part of an agenda in Washington to pass bills that would increase public spending on mental health services for poor communities in the United States.
Rosalynn and Jimmy live together in Plains, Georgia, the small town where the two were born, married and lived before the Democrat’s political life began. Their last public appearance came last September, when the couple met local residents during an event honoring Carter’s past in local peanut farming, according to a report by Britain’s BBC.