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Poland's Walesa leaves hospital after three-week stay

Other News Materials 29 June 2011 15:32 (UTC +04:00)
Former Polish president and Solidarity union leader Lech Walesa left the hospital Wednesday after a three-week stay during which he was treated for pneumonia.
Poland's Walesa leaves hospital after three-week stay

Former Polish president and Solidarity union leader Lech Walesa left the hospital Wednesday after a three-week stay during which he was treated for pneumonia, DPA reported.

Walesa was shown on television followed by crowds of reporters and exiting the hospital in his native Gdansk, northern Poland. He had earlier been pushed by nurses in a wheelchair during meetings in the hospital with the press.

Walesa checked himself into the hospital on June 8 after complaining of high fever and stomach problems.

He was later diagnosed with lobar pneumonia, which affects the lobes in lungs. He said he suspected airplane air conditioning might have made him ill, as he frequently travels abroad to speak about his role in Solidarity.

Doctors said Walesa had remained optimistic, which made him easier to treat. Photos on Walesa's blog showed him posing with hospital staff or shaking a doctor's hand.

The Nobel Peace Prize recipient has had heart problems and was fitted with a pacemaker three years ago.

Walesa led protests in the shipyards of Gdansk in the 1970s and 1980s that helped topple Poland's Communist regime in 1989.

He was the country's first elected post-Communist president from 1990 to 1995.

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