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JAKARTA: Indonesia's former leader Suharto is improving in hospital with medics training him to talk and reclaim control of his muscles again ahead of a possible return home, doctors said Sunday.
The ex-president has been in hospital for 17 days with severe heart, lung and kidney problems and suffered multiple organ failure before showing solid signs of recovery in recent days.
"The general condition shows improvement, his level of consciousness is good," Mardjo Sioebiandono, who heads the team of doctors, told a press briefing here.
Suharto, 86, is now partly breathing on his own after the tube from the ventilator was removed from his mouth on Saturday and put through an incision in his neck instead, he said.
The former dictator's heart and lungs are also improving and signs of systemic infection are under control," Sioebiandono said, with medics working to overcome infections and provide exercises to restore muscle activity.
The ex-president, who ruled Indonesia for more than three decades, was first admitted to hospital on January 4.
He was connected to a ventilator a week later when he suffered multiple organ failure but has since got better.
"This morning, his consciousness is very good," said another doctor sitting on the team, Jusuf Misbach.
"He can follow orders and even tried to speak even though his voice is still weak. His consciousness has undergone a rapid improvement."
"(He) looks fresher...we are all feeling a relief because in the last few days, the progress of his health has improved," former state secretary and now an acting spokesman for Suharto's family, Moerdiono said.
Late on Saturday evening, Djoko Rahardjo, the head of the Pertamina hospital where Suharto is being treated said that patient may soon be allowed to move out of the hospital's intensive care unit.
"In a few days," he said when asked by journalists when Suharto could leave.
Meanwhile, several groups, including an inter-religion organisation and another led by Vice President Jusuf Kalla, held joint prayers on Sunday for Suharto's health.
Suharto, who was among Asia's most notorious strongmen of the 20th century, stepped down in 1998 amid deadly riots and mass pro-democracy protests that were sparked by the 1997 Asian economic crisis. - AFP/ac
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