Nelson Mandela suffers collapsed lung

January 28, 2011

Nelson Mandela, the former South African president, is currently recovering from a collapsed lung in, according to the Reuters news agency. The 92-year-old was admitted to hospital on Wednesday for 'routine tests', having been airlifted from Cape Town, where he and his wife were having a holiday, to a hospital near his home in Johannesburg. He is thought to be recovering well.

The South African president stated that "President Mandela is comfortable and is well looked after by a good team of medical specialists", going on to say that "[he] urge[s] the media to afford him the dignity and respect that he is entitled to as the country's founding democratic president, as a national hero and also as a citizen of the republic" of South Africa.

Robert Gibbs, spokesperson for the White House, stated that "the [ U.S. ] president and the first lady, their thoughts are wi[th] Nelson Mandela".

Mandela spent twenty-seven years in a South African prison as a leader of the South African anti-apartheid movement, before being released in 1990 and becoming South Africa's first black president.