/ 12 April 2007

Manto allowed to leave hospital

Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang has been discharged from hospital, her physician said on Thursday.

”The minister is enjoying a pass-out from hospital, which means she gets the opportunity to go home for a couple of hours every day,” said her physician, Professor Jeff Wing.

Wing said the minister has been a pass-out patient since the Easter weekend. ”Her condition is fine; she is progressing well.”

Tshabalala-Msimang’s spokesperson Sibani Mngadi said the minister has been allowed to return home following her liver-transplant surgery on March 14.

”The minister has returned to her home in Pretoria on an ambulatory discharge from the Johannesburg General Hospital,” he said.

She was readmitted to the Johannesburg hospital’s intensive-care unit on February 20, following hospitalisation for a lung ailment last year.

”She has not yet been formally discharged, as she still has to come in for routine check-ups,” said Wing. — Sapa