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