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Margaret Thatcher to be kept in hospital for days
Joe Murphy and Sophie Goodchild15 Jun 2009
Concern for Margaret Thatcher's health increased this afternoon when doctors decided to keep her in hospital for “several days”.
Baroness Thatcher, 83, tripped in her bedroom while getting dressed on Friday and broke her upper arm.
She was due to be allowed home this afternoon from Chelsea and Westminster hospital but her assistant Mark Worthington said: “The doctors have decided to keep her in, it is an entirely precautionary measure.”
He said that Lady Thatcher was well enough to sit up in a chair and chat to visitors but doctors would assess her recovery over the next few days.
Her son Sir Mark visited her this morning and said: “She has had some painkillers but was in very good order and had a bit of mischief about her.”
However, friends of Britain's only woman prime minister, have been worried about her ability to look after herself.
Last summer her daughter spoke for the first time about her battle with dementia. Carol Thatcher said her mother now struggled to finish sentences, does not know where she lives and forgot that her husband Denis was dead.
Lady Thatcher has cut down on her commitments and has mostly obeyed doctors' orders not to speak in public.
Last week she was at the Carlton Club in London to mark the 30th anniversary of her first election victory.
Reader views (12)
paul, you're obviously one of the greedy few that done well out of this witch i take it, unlike the millions she has caused unpresidented suffering to. the people working in the industries she sold off and shut down, the industries that would have got us out of this mess we're now in. the comunities that relied on them and are still unable to recover. the people that rely on the NHS that she destroyed, or the millions that can't afford to buy a house and has to pay greedy property owners to rent their place because she gave our affordable housing away.
yeah she put this country on something, but certainly wasn't its feet.
once she pops her cloggs everyones invited to mine for a big party!!
- tim, london, 19/10/2010 23:42
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I wonder if she had sympathy for the families of the men who died on the Belgrano. I'd like to think I have more than an ounce on human dignity and I have no time for the woman.
- Niall Kitching, Stockton-on-Tees, UK, 17/06/2009 09:22
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Richard, London: with respect you are missing the point. The bitter lefties won't have a job. They'll be living off benefits dare say.
- Jb, London, 16/06/2009 10:07
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Margaret Thatcher put this country on its feet. She was not frightened to take tough decisions - when she came to power the UK was a basket case, when she left there was a strong platfiorm left behind that New Labour has Catastrophically undermined. Let's hope the next Prime Minister has half of her grit and determination.
Get well soon, Maggie.
- Paul, London, 16/06/2009 10:00
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What bitter comments about 'lack of sympathy'. Lady Thatcher's current health difficulties have nothing to do with her 11 years as PM- she is simply an elderly lady who had a fall at her home, and I'd hope anyone with an ounce of human decency would hope she gets well. I hope the bitter folk who have no sympathy never get a job in healthcare.
- Richard, London, 16/06/2009 06:50
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Here's to you Mrs T.
Sadly, you'll never gain the sympathy of those who still want to hark back to the days of power cuts, three day weeks, and rubbish bags gathering in the streets. They won't be happy until we're all once more a nation eating out of cans of forced meat, and keeping warm by clinging to the radiators in the libraries.
No...They'd sooner live under Labour...
- Jock, London, 16/06/2009 03:17
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'..when doctors decided to keep her in hospital for “several days”.'
It's a bit late now, chaps: where were you in 1970?
- Mdj E10, london uk, 16/06/2009 00:08
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I bet she didn't have to wait in the A&E like the rest of the public.
M W Staffs
- M Willis, cannock,England, 15/06/2009 23:42
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It is hard to feel sympathy for someone who had none for anybody else.
She was happy to sacrifice communities and lives to line the pockets of the rich and to disempower working people.
She showed disdain to all who worked in the public sector and I suppose it is therefore ironic that the people now caring for her were mostly trained in the that sector. They show themselves to be better than she ever was as they clearly bare no grudges.
- Brian, yorkshire, 15/06/2009 17:36
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I believe people of my generation (born late 1980's)can best judge Thatcher because we can evaluate her legacy without emotion and we have the benefit of hindsight. Everyone knows emotive history is unreliable and her admirers and detractors all fail to produce balanced accounts. One thing I notice is many of her critics say she 'broke Britain', they make it out to be Britain pre Thatcher to be this socially hamonious melting pot. It wasnt and never will be. I, and people of my generation willing to form their own opinion of Thatcher rather than listen to stereotype, compare the country she inherited and the country she left behind and come to the conclusion she was a good Prime Minister. When a country was as sick as Britain was you don't blame the surgeon who rids us of the disease, you blame the disease itself and the people who let it spread: the unions. When history gets objective, as it is beginning to do, Thatcher will be judged to be one of our greatest Prime Ministers. I personally whilst not a Thatcher enthusiast, certainly wish her well.
- James, Birmingham UK, 15/06/2009 17:12
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I'm with Jane entirely. Nor was she particularly good to the NHS or the nurses that still treated her.
- Rudi Young, London, UK, 15/06/2009 16:52
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When she was in her prime, what did she do for the Old Folk? Sorry, not a great deal of sympathy now.
- Jane, London, 15/06/2009 16:27
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