Severiano Ballesteros – Discharged after another successful operation

Former Spanish golf legend, Severiano Ballesteros has been released from intensive care, one day after he underwent his fourth operation since being diagnosed with a brain tumour in October.

The former golf champion had a fourth operation to remove fluid from the brain. Seve, 51, was diagnosed with a brain tumour after losing consciousness at Madrid Airport in October. He had a valve inserted to drain fluid from his brain and surgery to repair a bone defect on 2 December.

He left La Paz hospital in Madrid on Tuesday morning but will continue to be treated there as an outpatient. “There is a long recovery time ahead and I shall keep fighting with patience and determination,” he said. On a statement on his website, he paid tribute to the medical staff and the care he had received at the hospital. “Thanks to them I will be able to play the mulligan of my life, which I expect to enjoy at my best,” he said. “Occasionally I was a rebel patient and therefore I ask them to forgive me and thank everyone for all the cares received.”

A statement from La Paz hospital read: “The patient Severiano Ballesteros has been discharged by the department of neurosurgery. He will continue to have outpatients treatment in the department of radiotherapy and medical oncology.”

Ballesteros, the winner of five major championships and 87 titles around the world, had been admitted to hospital in the second week of October and had the first of four operations after a brain tumour was detected. There had been no previous indication that he would be allowed to leave hospital at this time.

The world of golf has been dominated by talk of recovering players in the past months. In the United States, the speculation centred on Tiger Woods, the world No 1, who is rehabilitating after surgery to his left knee and who is expected to resume playing competitively in the spring. Yet Woods’s travails were overshadowed by Ballesteros and his health since news of his brain tumour broke after he collapsed at Madrid airport on October 6.

Before he went in for his first operation, on October 14, when a sizeable part of a tumour on his brain was removed, he thanked his fans for their support and said he was facing the biggest challenge of his career.  Since then he has had three more operations, the most recent  a cranioplasty  last week, when fluid was removed from his brain and a valve was implanted to repair a bone defect in his skull.

Ballesteros retired from playing golf last year following arthritic back and knee problems, while doctors discovered an irregular heartbeat when he was admitted to hospital in 2007. But he admitted that his current medical problems presented the hardest challenge of his life.

“When you fight with faith and persistency you can overcome whichever drawback you come across. Our mind is stronger than we imagine. Just as I always did in my professional life, visualising success helps achieve ones targets however impossible they seem. I am a believer and will continue thinking positively to defeat the illness I suffer and encourage those who are going through something similar to do it with the same determination as myself.” he said.