ATLANTA, Ga. – Former President Jimmy Carter was released from Emory University Hospital in Atlanta on Wednesday morning after spending more than two weeks there following a procedure to relieve pressure on his brain, according to a statement from the Carter Center.
"He and Mrs. Carter look forward to enjoying Thanksgiving at home in Plains, where he will continue to recover," the Carter Center said in a statement . "The Carters are grateful for all the prayers, cards, and notes they have received and hope everyone will join them in enjoying a special Thanksgiving."
Carter, 95, was admitted to the hospital on November 11 for the procedure to relieve pressure on his brain. The pressure was caused by bleeding from his recent falls, the center said at the time.
He was hospitalized twice last month for two falls in his home in Plains, Georgia. The former president suffered a black eye and received 14 stitches above his brow after his first fall when he hit his forehead "on a sharp edge." He later received treatment for a minor pelvic fracture after his second fall .
He previously survived liver cancer and brain cancer, announcing in 2015 that the cancer was gone.
"We are very happy he was able to come home," Plains Mayor L.E. "Boze" Godwin III told CNN's Nick Valencia after the former president was released from the hospital.
"Hopefully he'll look after himself and not push himself too hard," Godwin said. "I just want him to look after himself. He's always trying to look after everyone else. We want him to look after himself."
Carter has not let his health complications slow him down. On the day of the first fall last month, he traveled to Nashville for the 36th Carter Work Project with Habitat for Humanity, saying building homes was his No. 1 priority.
"I fell down and hit my forehead on a sharp edge and had to go to the hospital. And they took 14 stitches in my forehead and my eye is black, as you've noticed," he said. "But I had a No. 1 priority and that was to come to Nashville and build houses."
The former commander-in-chief celebrated his 95th birthday on October 1, becoming the oldest living former US president -- a title once held by George H.W. Bush, who died in late 2018 at age 94.
The 39th president, who teaches Sunday school lessons at Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, said during a church service earlier this month that he "was absolutely and completely at ease with death" after doctors told him that the cancer had spread to his brain.
"I assumed, naturally, that I was going to die very quickly." he said. "I obviously prayed about it. I didn't ask God to let me live, but I asked God to give me a proper attitude toward death. And I found that I was absolutely and completely at ease with death."
"It didn't really matter to me whether I died or lived. Except I was going to miss my family, and miss the work at the Carter Center and miss teaching your Sunday school service sometimes and so forth. All those delightful things."