By Adelle M. Banks
(RNS) Evangelist Billy Graham, who had been hospitalized for episodes of intestinal bleeding, went home Thursday (Aug. 30), his staff announced.
Graham, 88, entered Mission Health & Hospitals in Asheville, N.C., on Aug. 18 and underwent a colonoscopy four days later. The procedure revealed an area of active bleeding, which was treated with cauterization.
“We have been pleased that he has been able to come back from this incident as well as he has,” said Dr. Lucian Rice, an internal medicine specialist at the hospital, in a statement shortly before Graham’s discharge.
“He will continue to have therapy at home, and I feel that he can have a very good recovery.”
The colonoscopy showed that the bleeding problem was consistent with an arteriovenous malformation, which is a tangle of small blood vessels in the colon’s lining.
Medical staffers reported that the evangelist had been in good spirits and took frequent walks in the hospital, which is near his home in Montreat.
Graham suffers from Parkinson’s disease and other ailments and has been mostly homebound in recent years. Ruth Graham, his wife of more than 63 years, died in June.
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