Rev. Jesse Jackson has been released from a Chicago hospital where he spent nearly two weeks being treated for a rare neurological disorder.
The Rainbow PUSH Coalition published a statement Monday confirming the civil right’s organization’s 84-year-old founder had been discharged from Northwestern Memorial Hospital.
“Our family would like to thank the countless friends and supporters who have reached out, visited, and prayed for our father,” Jackson’s son Yusef Jackson said on Facebook. “We bear witness to the fact that prayer works and would also like to thank the professional caring, and amazing medical and security staff at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. We humbly ask for your continued prayers throughout this precious time.”
Chicago station WGN said Jackson was admitted for observation on Nov. 12.
The former 1984 and 1988 Democratic party presidential candidate was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2013. In April, the diagnoses changed to progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), according to the Rainbow PUSH Coalition.
The National Institutes of Health describes PSP as “a rare neurological disorder that affects body movements, walking and balance, and eye movements.”
Veteran White House correspondent April Miller reported in Black Press USA that former President Barack Obama spoke to Jackson over the weekend after spending several days coordinating the call with his fellow Democrat’s family. Both men have deep ties to Chicago politics and activism.
Former President Bill Clinton and 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton visited Jackson in the hospital on Friday, according to the Chicago Tribune. President Clinton honored Jackson with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2000.
