McGovern discharged from hospital

Former senator and Democratic presidential candidate George McGovern has been released from a Florida hospital after undergoing…

Former senator and Democratic presidential candidate George McGovern has been released from a Florida hospital after undergoing tests, a hospital spokeswoman said.

Patty McAnnally, nursing supervisor at Flagler Hospital in St Augustine, Florida, said the 89-year-old was released yesterday afternoon.

Mr McGovern’s daughter Ann McGovern has said her father was admitted for tests to determine why he occasionally passes out and loses his ability to speak.

Mr McGovern splits his time between Florida and South Dakota, where he was a congressman from 1957 to 1961 and a US senator from 1963 to 1981. He has been taken to hospital several times in recent months.

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He was treated for exhaustion in Sioux Falls in October after he completed a lecture tour.

Two months later, he fell and hit his head, just before he was to be interviewed on C-SPAN for a programme called The Contender.

Mr McGovern lost in a historic landslide in his 1972 challenge against president Richard Nixon, who eventually resigned amid the Watergate scandal.

AP