Ex-President Jimmy Carter home from hospital after breaking hip

[May 17, 2019]    (Reuters) - Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter was released from a hospital on Thursday and will recuperate at home after falling and breaking his hip earlier this week while preparing to leave on a turkey-hunting trip, the Carter Center said.

In a statement, the nonprofit organization said the 94-year-old Carter was discharged from the Phoebe Sumter Medical Center in Americus, Georgia, near the Carters' home in Plains.

"He will undergo physical therapy, as part of his recovery from hip replacement surgery. President Carter plans to teach Sunday school at Maranatha Baptist Church (in Plains) this weekend," the center said in its statement.

Carter's wife, former first lady Rosalynn Carter, 91, felt faint on Wednesday and was also admitted overnight to the hospital for observation and testing, the Center's statement said.

"She left the hospital with President Carter this morning," it said.

Carter, who was governor of Georgia from 1971 to 1975, served a single four-year term in the White House as the nation's 39th president. He was defeated in his re-election bid by Republican Ronald Reagan in 1980.

Carter, who received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 for his humanitarian work, has lived longer after leaving the White House than any former president in U.S. history.

(Writing by Daniel Wallis; editing by Jonathan Oatis)

[© 2019 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved.]

Copyright 2019 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.  Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.