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By Sam Mediavilla, Reporter
The President’s husband, Jose
Miguel “Mike” Arroyo, would be discharged from the St. Luke’s
Medical Center over the weekend, perhaps after Mrs. Arroyo returns
from a shortened visit to China.
The President is to leave for the
southern Chinese island of Boao on Friday night to attend the annual
Boao Forum for Asia. She is expected to be back on Saturday night.
On Wednesday Arroyo, who had open
heart surgery on April 9, was wheeled out of St. Luke’s Medical
Center’s cardiovascular recovery room and transferred to a private
room.
Executive Secretary Eduardo
Ermita said on Wednesday that the President wants to be present when
Mike Arroyo leaves the hospital.
Mrs. Arroyo’s Foreign Visit
Secretariat had originally booked a weeklong trip for the President
covering Boao in Hainan, Chengdu and Chongqing both in Sichuan
province, Shanghai and Shenzen.
Her itinerary was shortened after
her husband had the operation.
Malacañang had reported earlier
that Mrs. Arroyo would be back by 6 p.m. Saturday, but there was no
confirmation if Mike Arroyo would be discharged Saturday evening or
Sunday.
In a statement he issued
Wednesday, Arroyo thanked all those who prayed for his immediate
recovery.
“I hope to reciprocate your
prayers with an intensified effort to help the poor, especially the
sick, in my own little way at the soonest possible time,” he said.
He said he was overwhelmed by the
multitude of flowers he has been receiving during his confinement.
“It would give me greater joy
if money to be spent for flowers for me would instead be donated to
the FG Foundation Fund at the Philippine General Hospital [PGH] so
that we can serve a greater number of sick indigents,” he said.
The FG Foundation extends
financial and medical assistance, including treatment, for various
ailments to sick indigents at the PGH.
From January to early April
alone, at least 210 sick indigents, mostly from Metro Manila, and
various provinces have been beneficiaries of the FG Foundation.
Arroyo’s condition had improved
remarkably. Two days after the surgery, Dr. Juliet Gopez-Cervantes,
his main attending physician, had said he had 70 to 80 percent
chance of full recovery.
But after the critical 48-hour
period after the operation, his condition began to improve as his
vital organs including his kidneys started to function normally.
Since then his ventilator, which
helps him breathe, has been removed and Arroyo has required less and
less hours of therapy.
 --Jefferson
Antiporda
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