OWN CORRESPONDENT, Washington | Friday 9.15am.
SOUTH African Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu underwent exploratory cancer surgery on Thursday at the Emory University Hospital in Atlanta in the southern US state of Georgia.
The surgery “was to see where the cancer spread, and determine what kind of future treatments are necessary,” said hospital spokeswoman Michelle Stevenson.
The surgery lasted a mere two hours and 15 minutes, she said.
“He’s doing great. He’ll go home tomorrow [Friday morning],” she said.
The test results of the brief surgery will be known in two weeks, said Tutu’s surgeon, Emory University associate professor of urology Harry Clarke.
Tutu, 68, was in “good spirits” after the surgery, Clarke said.
In a written statement Tutu thanked all those who “have given him assurances of prayer and expressions of love and concern.”
The archbishop, a champion of the anti-apartheid struggle and former head of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission which probed apartheid-era abuses, was diagnosed with cancer and treated in 1997.
He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984.
Tutu, a lecturer at Emory University, this month released a book entitled “No Future Without Forgiveness” which urges reconciliation between South Africa’s different races.