Football legend George Best remained seriously ill in a London hospital on Tuesday but was partly conscious and responding to some stimulus, his doctor told reporters.
”He’s alive and his brain is working and he’s partly conscious, so we’re going to go on with all the treatment,” said Professor Roger Williams outside the private Cromwell hospital in west London.
Williams, a specialist liver consultant, said medics are cautious about recovery and reiterated that the 59-year-old former Manchester United and Northern Ireland winger remains ”desperately ill”.
”He’s as ill as he’s ever been, but he’s now responsive off sedation. What we hope over the next 24 hours is that he will recover further so he can come off a ventilator.
”All other aspects of infection and so on seem to be well controlled,” he added, explaining that the former footballer is able to move his eyes and head and has ”some element of recognition” of his family, who are at his bedside.
Asked about how Best has been responding to treatment, Williams replied: ”He’s a tremendous fighter. He’s unbelievable. None of us, I think, has seen somebody come through so many serious complications as he has. He must be a very strong person inside.”
Best was admitted to hospital in early October with an infection thought to be linked to immuno-suppressant drugs used to help prevent his body rejecting the new liver he received in a life-saving transplant.
Considered among the sport’s greatest players alongside the likes of Pele and Diego Maradona, the sportsman began drinking heavily during his playing days.
He became an alcoholic, bringing on a succession of health problems that led to the 2002 transplant, during which he nearly died.
He was back on the booze within a year, however, having been told another drink could kill him. — Sapa-AFP