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Jimmy Carter hospitalized after fall at Georgia home

Posted at 6:23 AM, Oct 22, 2019
and last updated 2019-10-22 08:23:48-04

Former President Jimmy Carter has been admitted to the hospital after falling in his home in Plains, Georgia, Monday night.

Carter was admitted to Phoebe Sumter Medical Center for observation and treatment of a minor pelvic fracture, Deanna Congileo, director of communications for the Carter Center, said in a statement Tuesday.

“He is in good spirits and is looking forward to recovering at home,” Congileo said.

Carter, who turned 95 earlier this month, fell in his home two weeks ago. While getting ready for church, Carter fell and hit his head, requiring 14 stitches above his brow.

That afternoon, Carter traveled to Nashville, Tennessee, where he kicked off the 36th Carter Work Project with Habitat for Humanity.

“I fell down and hit my forehead on a sharp edge and had to go to the hospital. And they took 14 stitches in my forehead and my eye is black, as you’ve noticed. But I had a number one priority and that was to come to Nashville and build houses,” he told a crowd that evening.

During the Habitat build, Carter was focused on his work, nimbly constructing corbels, a wooden support structure, under a tent on an empty lot alongside his wife, former first lady Rosalynn Carter. The former president, who walked with a cane, briefly fell while working on the corbels, helped up by Secret Service agents on site. After standing on his feet for nearly an hour, he took a seat and continued his work.

The former president previously survived brain and liver cancer, announcing his cancer was gone in 2015.

“We’ve cut back in the last few months. I’m 92, he’s 95, and we thought it was time to stop working steadily all day every day,” Rosalynn Carter told reporters earlier this month. But they still maintain a busy schedule, she said, traveling to Atlanta monthly to spend time at the Carter Center.

“I’ll stop when I have to. But I won’t stop until I have to,” Jimmy Carter told CNN.