Nancy Reagan’s recovery prospects excellent

Press, 20 October 1987, Page 8

Nancy Reagan’s recovery prospects excellent

NZPA-Reuter Washington Nancy Reagan was able to get up and walk around her hospital suite just a day after a breast cancer operation. Doctors said the operation removed all traces of disease, giving her an excellent chance for full recovery. "Mrs Reagan’s prognosis for full recovery is excellent,” the White House physician, Colonel John Hutton, told reporters. “Final laboratory analysis of tissue and lymph nodes removed during surgery confirm there is no further malignancy or evidence of other disease,” Dr Hutton said. Mrs Reagan had her left breast removed on Saturday after a small tumour found during a

routine check-up two weeks ago proved to be malignant. White House spokesman, Marlin Fitzwater, told reporters that she was recovering so well that she might be in hospital less than the expected five to seven days. President Reagan spent much of Saturday and Sunday at his wife’s bedside despite rising tension in the Gulf, where a United States-flagged Kuwaiti tanker was attacked on Friday. Mr Fitzwater said the President ordered aides to keep his schedule flexible during the next several days to permit time with Mrs Reagan. Returning from the hospital, Mr Reagan was clearly pleased by his

wife’s progress. “We’ve been together all afternoon. We had lunch together and she’s feeling just fine,” he said. Earlier on Sunday, Mr Reagan had tucked a giftwrapped box under his arm as he boarded a helicopter for the short trip to Bethesda, a suburb of Washington. “I’ve got a date with a girl out at Bethesda. This is a present for her,” he said. He told reporters that the gift was a mirror Mrs Reagan had admired. Mrs Reagan wanted to stress to other women that her prognosis for a full recovery was a good example of why early detection of breast cancer is so important, Mr Fitzwater said.