Polish ex president to stay in hospital for more than a week

Jun 20, 2011, 11:01 GMT

Warsaw - Former Polish president and Solidarity union leader Lech Walesa said Monday he was likely to remain in hospital for more than a week after being diagnosed with pneumonia.

'I would like to (leave the hospital) but I don't know if I will manage,' Walesa told broadcaster TVN 24. 'I would like to go home as soon as possible, but this illness requires care.'

Walesa checked himself into the hospital in his native Gdansk, northern Poland, on June 8 with complaints of a high fever and stomach problems.

He said Monday that he was feeling a 'little better,' but would likely remain hospitalized for longer than a week. Media reports said he would likely be released by the coming weekend.

Walesa has been diagnosed with lobar pneumonia, which affects areas of the lobes in lungs. He said Monday he suspected airplane air conditioning might have made him ill.

The former president makes frequent trips abroad to speak about his role in helping to overthrow the Communist regime in 1989.

Doctors said Walesa had remained optimistic while undergoing tests, while photos posted on his blog showed him standing with hospital staff and 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 late 1970s that helped topple Poland's Communist regime a decade later.

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