Football legend Pele ‘moved to end-of-life care’ in hospital
Brazilian football legend Pele ‘has been moved to palliative care’ in hospital and is ‘no longer responding to chemotherapy’ in his fight against bowel cancer.
Reports in Brazil said the 82-year-old, who went into hospital last week, is receiving measures to relieve pain in an ‘end-of-life palliative care’ ward.
He was admitted into the Albert Einstein Hospital in Sao Paulo, Brazil on Tuesday suffering from ‘general swelling’ and ‘heart failure’.
An update on Thursday said the three-time World Cup winner was in a ‘stable’ condition in the hospital with his daughter Kely insisting there was ‘no cause for alarm’. However, a report by Folha de Sao Paulo on Saturday, said Pele isn’t responding any longer to the chemotherapy treatment he has been undergoing since last September to treat his bowel cancer. They said he is now in palliative care and won’t be subjected to invasive tests or treatment. Palliative care is for patients with potentially life-threatening diseases or conditions and end-of-life care.
Pele – whose full name is Edson Arantes do Nascimento – is regarded by many as the greatest footballer of all time. He won three World Cups with Brazil in 1958, 1962 and 1970, and scored 643 goals in 659 official matches for the Brazilian club Santos. He scored 77 times in 92 games for his country’s national team.
Social media was flooded with messages from footballers past and present wishing Pele a speedy recovery.
On Friday, the Albert Einstein Hospital released a statement saying Pele had been diagnosed with a ‘respiratory infection’ that was being treated with antibiotics.
The update said the former player is expected to remain in hospital for continued treatment in the coming days but said his condition was ‘stable’.
The hospital confirmed Pele had been taken into hospital ‘for a reassessment of the chemotherapy treatment of the colon tumour identified in September 2021.’
Pele was hospitalised for six days last year and underwent surgery to remove a tumour in his colon. The Globo news site in Brazil said Pele was undergoing routine examinations in Sao Paulo’s Albert Einstein Hospital when the undisclosed issue was detected.
Pele has been battling bowel cancer since he was diagnosed with a tumour in his large intestine at the end of August 2021. He was undergoing routine examinations which were delayed a year because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Four days later, he underwent surgery at the Albert Einstein hospital to remove the tumour and was taken into an ICU unit several times because of respiratory issues. He started a course of chemotherapy shortly afterwards and in December 2021, was taken back into hospital for more cancer-beating treatment. He was discharged just before Christmas. Pele went back into hospital for another course of chemotherapy in February, joking on social media that ‘hopefully there’s popcorn to watch the Super Bowl soon’.
