Dame Patience Jonathan, the First Lady of Nigeria, was in a bad state of health when she arrived last week at the Horst Schmidt Klinik in Wiesbaden, Germany, a spokesperson for the hospital has revealed.

An official of the hospital yesterday confirmed that initial records showed that the Nigerian President’s wife had earlier been treated for food poisoning back home before being brought to Horst Schmidt Klinik.

The Abuja-based LEADERSHIP newspaper to which the hospital official spoke via telephone, however, revealed that Mrs. Jonathan is responding to treatment after undergoing a major surgery for a ruptured appendix to remove the poisons in her intestine.

The chat with the unnamed senior consultant of Horst Schmidt Klinik lasted eight minutes, according to the newspaper. The source, a female, said Dame Jonathan was brought to Horst Schmidt Klinik early last week after the management of the hospital had been contacted and briefed on her deteriorating health condition.

Though confirming that the Nigerian First Lady is getting better, the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, declared that the hospital management would ensure that she was fully fit before she would be allowed to go back to Nigeria.

News Express recalls that both the First Lady’s spokesman, Ayo Osinlu, and Dr. Reuben Abati, the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, had on Tuesday evening dismissed Dame Jonathan’s reported illness as a rumour. Though admitting that she travelled to Germany, they kept sealed lips on her whereabouts.

Horst Schmidt Klinik is gradually becoming a choice hospital of Nigerian top government officials. It was the same hospital that late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua once received for kidney-related ailments.

The flamboyant Dame Jonathan has yet to be seen in public for about two weeks.

*Photo: Dame Jonathan