Shal­iza?Has­sanali

For­mer pres­i­dent George Maxwell Richards, who was re­cent­ly ward­ed at a pri­vate hos­pi­tal af­ter suf­fer­ing a mild stroke, is rest­ing com­fort­ably at his St Joseph home.

Last Wednes­day, Richards, 84, fell ill and was tak­en to West­Shore Med­ical Hos­pi­tal, in Co­corite, by his wife Jean Ramjohn-Richards and daugh­ter Max­ine Richards.

At the health fa­cil­i­ty, Richards was ward­ed at the Coro­nary Care Unit (CCU)–a spe­cialised car­diac in­ten­sive care unit (CI­CU) for pa­tients suf­fer­ing from heart at­tacks, un­sta­ble angi­na, car­diac dys­rhyth­mia and (in prac­tice) var­i­ous oth­er car­diac con­di­tions that re­quire con­tin­u­ous mon­i­tor­ing and treat­ment.

Richards, who served two con­sec­u­tive terms as pres­i­dent from 2003 to 2013, will cel­e­brate his 85th birth­day on Thurs­day.

Yes­ter­day, a source close to the Richards fam­i­ly told the T&T Guardian that with­in hours of be­ing ad­mit­ted at the health in­sti­tu­tion, the for­mer Head of State was dis­charged and re­turned home, where he was rest­ing com­fort­ably and do­ing much bet­ter with his health.

"He is much bet­ter now. His health has im­proved. He spent just a few hours at the hos­pi­tal," the source said.

Among those who wished Richards a speedy re­cov­ery was Health Min­is­ter Ter­rence Deyals­ingh.

Two weeks ago, a false re­port had sur­faced on the In­ter­net claim­ing that Richards had died, which was dis­missed by his Ramjohn-Richards.

Calls to Max­ine's cell­phone yes­ter­day went unan­swered.