Spain’s King Juan Carlos began rehabilitation exercises on Tuesday, while the operation for a herniated disc that he underwent last weekend continues to mend “in a positive way,” doctors said Tuesday.
According to the medical report read Tuesday by Gaspar Palet, director of the Madrid medical center where he is still hospitalized, the monarch was operated Sunday by neurosurgeon Manuel de la Torre, who removed herniated disc segments in separate intervetebral spaces in the lumbosacral area of the back, a surgical operation that took three hours to complete.
“Late in the afternoon, Juan Carlos got up and walked around the room,” said the latest medical bulletin, adding that he was scheduled to begin “rehabilitation exercises” on Tuesday.
After a visit Monday by Queen Sofia and the couple’s daughters, Princesses Elena and Cristina, on Tuesday it was Crown Prince Felipe who went to the clinic where the monarch is recovering from his operation.
The king will probably remain hospitalized for a week, while his total recovery will take between two and six months, according to the neurosurgeon who operated on him.
