Muhammad Ali Hospitalized: Boxing Great Battling Case Of Pneumonia
Muhammad Ali has been hospitalized with what doctors describe as a mild case of pneumonia, one they believe he should be able to overcome in a matter of days.
The boxing great was brought to a hospital in Louisville, Kentucky, on Saturday morning. Ali’s spokesman said later that night that Ali should be out after a short stay.
“He was admitted earlier this morning and because the pneumonia was caught early, his prognosis is good with a short hospital stay expected,” spokesman Bob Gunnell said in a statement.
Gunnell did not give other details of Muhammad Ali’s hospitalization, including where he was or his condition.
Ali has been batting Parkinson’s disease for many years, and a new revelation from the director of the Muhammad Ali Parkinson Center said it may have not been related to his boxing career.
Though it was widely assumed that Ali’s long and often punishing career contributed to his neurological condition, Dr. Abraham Lieberman recently said there may not be a link between boxing and Parkinson’s.
In a recent interview with BBC Radio Five Live’s Sportsweek program, Dr. Lieberman said, “It’s only over the last 10 years that he’s had a lot of trouble walking, with falls. So his course has been more that of typical Parkinson’s Disease. If you look at the MRI of his brain it looks pretty good but it’s very difficult to factor in what sort of role did boxing play. People ask me about this and I tell them: look at George Foreman. He boxed longer than Muhammad did, took many more blows to the head and he’s on television selling his cookware. I think that he (Ali) has typical Parkinson’s Disease. Did the boxing contribute? I don’t know. It may have.”
Lieberman added that Ali has remained in good condition despite battling the disease for 30 years.
“He’s had Parkinson’s since about 1984, that’s almost 30 years, that’s a long time in Parkinson’s,” he said. “He’s in good spirits, he has some trouble walking but overall for having had Parkinson’s for 30 years, he’s doing okay.”
Muhammad Ali had appeared in public several times, most recently in September in his hometown of Louisville for the Muhammad Ali Humanitarian Awards.
