MOTHER Teresa said her prayers and ate lunch sitting in a chair yesterday and doctors said they were optimistic the 86 year old nun would recover from her third heart surgery in five years.
"She is stable and we are very optimistic about her recovery, Dr Patricia Aubanel, a US member of the medical team treating her, told reporters at Calcutta's B.M. Birla Heart Research Centre.
Mother Teresa had surgery last Friday to clear two blocked coronary arteries. She is also suffering kidney and lung problems, as well as pneumonia.
"Mother is still not out of danger and complications still may happen, but doctors this morning are optimistic," a medical bulletin issued by the hospital said.
She is alert, cooperative with doctors, accepting her treatment," the clinic said in a medical bulletin. "She had lunch sitting on the chair. This afternoon she is sleeping peacefully. Doctors continue to be optimistic.
Mr A.K. Chatterjee, administrator of the heart clinic, said Mother Teresa again arose from bed in the early evening.
She just got up from bed and is having some physiotherapy exercises," he said without elaborating.
Mr Aubanel said doctors were now concentrating on Mother Teresa's kidney and lung problems.
The hospital said that on Sunday, doctors were concerned that Mother Teresa's chronic lung disease, bronchial pneumonia and poor kidneys might set back her recovery.
"Continuous monitoring and support are being given so that other organs do not deteriorate while the heart is recovering," the hospital said in a medical bulletin.
Mr Aubanel said: "We are doing respiratory therapy for her lung problem and she is responding."
Dr D.P. Shetty, chief of the medical team treating her, said on Sunday that Mother Teresa's heart pacemaker, fitted in 1989, had been reprogrammed to increase the flow of blood and help her kidneys function better.
Mr Aubanel said the adjustment in the pacemaker had been a success and Mother Teresa was now urinating normally.
But asked when Mother Teresa might be allowed to return to her Missionaries of Charity religious order, he said: "It's too early to say when she will be released.
The medical bulletin said the 1979 Nobel Peace Prize winner was briefly visited by Vice President Kocheril Raman Narayanan and the governor of West Bengal state, Mr K.V. Raghunath Reddy.
Mother Teresa told Dr Aubanel to work hard, and the US doctor replied that the nun also had to work hard to get well, the bulletin said.
"That is my duty, so I will do," it quoted Mother Teresa as saying.