Rev. Jesse Jackson has been discharged from a Chicago hospital after nearly two weeks, a family spokesperson says.
According to Jackson’s son Yusef, the 84-year-old civil rights leader was discharged from Northwestern Memorial Hospital on Monday, nearly two weeks after he was admitted for care for Progressive Supranuclear Palsy, an illness he was diagnosed with earlier this year.
“Our family would like to thank the countless friends and supporters who have reached out, visited, and prayed for our father. We bear witness to the fact that prayer works and would also like to thank the professional, caring, and amazing medical and security staff at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. We humbly ask for your continued prayers throughout this precious time,” said son and family spokesperson, Yusef Jackson.
Jackson had previously been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2013, but that diagnosis was updated to PSP earlier this year, according to a spokesperson.
Jackson had been released from an intensive care unit on November 17 according to the family, and was allowed to go home on Monday after being hospitalized since November 12.
Jackson has only been seen in public occasionally in the past year. In November, he was unable to attend his 84th birthday party.
His family is encouraging the public to continue praying for Jackson, and said he has been active in calling for efforts to help residents obtain food around the holiday season.
“Our father is alert and continues to share his vision for churches and pastors to come together and reduce malnutrition during this period. He is enlisting 2,000 churches and pastors to distribute 2,000 baskets of food to feed four million families this season,” Yusef Jackson said.
According to Dr. Bezhad Elahi, a University of Chicago neurologist who is not treating Jackson, PSP has no known cure.
He said physical therapy and some of the same drugs that are used on Parkinson’s patients can also be used.
“PSP patients they don’t respond as well to Parkinson’s medications, but we try to give them medications to improve mobility and their quality of life,” he said.
PSP patients, Elahi said, often have trouble with their eye movements, speech and mobility. They often wind up needing a wheelchair within four to five years of their diagnosis. PSP patients also have problems with falls and balance disorders. That, he said, can reduce their life expectancy.
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