Jimmy Carter, the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981, chose hospice care after a series of short hospitalizations, his family said in a statement on Saturday.
Issued via the Carter Centre, the statement said that the 98-year-old former president “decided to spend his remaining time at home” and the choice has “the full of support of his family and his medical team.”
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“After a series of short hospital stays, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter today decided to spend his remaining time at home with his family and receive hospice care instead of additional medical intervention,” the statement said. “He has the full support of his family and his medical team. The Carter family asks for privacy during this time and is grateful for the concern shown by his many admirers.”
Jimmy Carter was a Democrat politician whose lone term was succeeded by Republican Ronald Regan in 1981.
Carter is the oldest surviving president, the longest-serving president, and the one with the longest post-presidency at 98 years old. His 76-year marriage also makes him the president with the longest marriage. Moreover, he is the third-oldest living former state leader.
Carter was born on October 1, 1924, at the Wise Sanitarium in Plains, Georgia, which is now the Lillian G. Carter Nursing Center. His mother worked as a registered nurse there. The first American president to be born in a hospital was Carter.
He was Bessie Lillian (née Gordy) and James Earl Carter Sroldest’s child. Thomas Carter, an English immigrant who landed in Virginia in 1635, is the ancestor of the former president. In Georgia, the Carter family farmed cotton for several generations.
