Mandela’s month in hospital

The main developments since South African anti-apartheid hero and former president Nelson Mandela was admitted to hospital on June 8:

–JUNE, 2013–

– 8: Mandela, who will be 95 on July 18, is readmitted to hospital with a renewed lung infection and is in a “serious but stable condition”, the presidency says.

– 12: President Jacob Zuma says Mandela is “responding better to treatment from this morning”.

As on previous days, his family, including his wife Graca Machel, visit him at the Mediclinic Heart Hospital in Pretoria.

– 17: Mandela is “doing very well”, one of his daughters Zenani Mandela-Dlamini says.

Wife Machel thanks the world for its messages of support.

– 22: The presidency says the icon remains in a “serious but stable condition in hospital”, as the US news channel CBS says that Mandela is “unresponsive” and “has not opened his eyes for days”.

– 23: The presidency says Mandela has been in a critical condition “over the past 24 hours”.

– 25: Close family of Mandela gather at his rural homestead in Qunu.

– 26: Mandela is on life support, an elder in Mandela’s clan, Napilisi Mandela, says.

President Zuma cancels a trip to Mozambique.

UN leader Ban Ki-moon says that the whole world is praying for Mandela, “one of the giants of the 20th century”.

– 27: Zuma says that the condition of Mandela had improved overnight, but he remains critical but stable.

His daughter Makaziwe Mandela says his condition is “very critical” and “anything is imminent”.

– 30: Visiting US President Barack Obama goes to Robben Island and visits the cell where Mandela spent 18 years as a political prisoner.

A day earlier Obama had hailed him as “an inspiration to the world” and met members of his family.

– July 1: Mandela remains in a “critical but stable” condition, the presidency says.

– 4: Mandela has occasionally been uncomfortable but has not been in pain, Machel says.

The government denies that Mandela is “in a vegetative state” as claimed in a June 26 court document which emerges that day. According to the document Mandela’s doctors advised his family to turn off his life support machine, describing his perilous health.

The exhumed remains of Mandela’s three deceased children at the centre of a family feud are reburied in Qunu, after being exhumed and positively identified.

– 5: Mandela’s doctors have rejected the idea of turning off life support unless he suffers massive organ failure, a close family friend says.