Jimmy Carter has brain surgery days after telling Sunday school he’s ‘at ease with death’
Days after telling his church he was “at ease with death” during a Sunday school lesson, former President Jimmy Carter successfully underwent brain surgery Tuesday to relieve pressure on his brain stemming from three separate falls in recent months.
“Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter is recovering at Emory University Hospital following surgery this morning to relieve pressure on his brain from a subdural hematoma. There are no complications from the surgery,” the Carter Center said in a statement Tuesday morning.
Despite the success of the surgery, the Carter Center explained that America’s oldest living president is expected to remain in the hospital for observation.
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“President Carter will remain in the hospital as long as advisable for observation. We do not anticipate any further statements until he is released from the hospital. President and Mrs. Carter thank everyone for the many well-wishes they have received,” the statement ended.
Carter was hospitalized for the third time late last month after a fall left him with a “minor pelvic fracture.”
He also bumped his head in another fall as he got dressed for church on Oct. 6, but was back to doing charity work at Habitat for Humanity only hours after being treated at a hospital. Months before that in May, Carter broke his hip during another fall at his home ahead of a turkey hunting trip. He was released days later and said he would teach Sunday school that weekend at Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, Georgia, where he and his wife, Rosalynn, are longtime members.
Earlier this month during a Sunday school service near his home, Carter, who is America’s 39th president, revealed he is "at ease with death," CNN reported.
He explained that he got to this point after doctors told him in 2015 that his cancer had spread to his brain.
"I assumed, naturally, that I was going to die very quickly," Carter said at his church. "I obviously prayed about it. I didn't ask God to let me live, but I asked God to give me a proper attitude toward death. And I found that I was absolutely and completely at ease with death."
He added: "It didn't really matter to me whether I died or lived. Except I was going to miss my family, and miss the work at the Carter Center, and miss teaching your Sunday school service sometimes and so forth. All those delightful things."
In addition to being the oldest living former president, Carter, 95, and his wife recently copped the record for the longest married presidential couple from the late George Bush and his late wife, Barbara, both of whom died in 2018.
“It’s hard to live until you’re 95 years old,” Carter told People magazine last month about aging. “I think the best explanation for that is to marry the best spouse: someone who will take care of you and engage and do things to challenge you and keep you alive and interested in life.”
