Lee's wife recovers from stroke

Lee's wife recovers from stroke

SINGAPORE: The wife of Singapore's Senior Minister and elder statesman Lee Kuan Yew has been discharged from hospital after treatment for a stroke that partially blinded her in one eye, the government said on Monday.

The Oct. 25 stroke -- while on a trip to London -- fanned controversy over whether the British government gave the wife of Singapore's founding prime minister preferential treatment at a public London hospital by pushing her ahead of the queue.

"She is now back to nearly all her usual routine daily activities, although the defect in her left visual field has yet to recover," Lee said in a statement.

Lee said his wife, Kwa Geok Choo, left hospital on Nov. 26 and celebrated her 83rd birthday with family on Sunday.

After her stroke, Lee had described how Prime Minister Tony Blair's office had intervened to get his wife preferential treatment in Britain's public National Health Service (NHS), a hot potato for whatever party is in power, with constant public complaints about long waits and poor service.

Britain's Daily Telegraph, which traditionally backs the opposition Conservative Party, ran a banner headline after her stroke, saying: "No 10 'helped leader's wife to jump NHS queue'."

Lee later said he regretted saying the British government had put his wife ahead of the queue. Blair's office denied intervening in any way to help his wife.

Kwa was warded in the Royal London Hospital for six days before being flown to Singapore for a month of treatment at Singapore General Hospital.

Lee, credited with transforming Singapore from a swampy Third World sea port into a First World financial dynamo, was discharged from the same Singapore hospital last month after recovering from prostate surgery. -- Reuters