UPDATED: Lura Lynn Ryan Back At Home
Updated 01/27/11 - 6:11 p.m.
CHICAGO (CBS/AP) -- Former Gov. George Ryan's wife Lura Lynn Ryan has been released from the hospital, a few weeks after the former governor's attorneys said doctors had given her only a few weeks to live.
Lura Lynn Ryan has been released from a Kankakee hospital and was at home on Thursday, CBS 2 News has learned.
She was hospitalized in Kankakee earlier this month for treatment of her terminal lung cancer.
George Ryan's attorney, former Gov. Jim Thompson said Lura Lynn Ryan's release doesn't mean she's no longer considered terminally ill with cancer or that her condition has dramatically improved. He said it only suggests "there's nothing more they can do for her in the hospital."
Earlier Thursday, Thompson said that he talks to Lura Lynn Ryan regularly and her voice recently has sounded stronger. But he said her condition is largely unchanged and doctors don't expect chemotherapy will cure her cancer, only that it will keep her alive a little longer.
Thompson also said he has not yet heard from federal prison officials about whether George Ryan will be allowed another furlough from the Terre Haute prison camp where he is imprisoned in order to visit his wife.
Earlier this month, George Ryan was granted a two-hour visit with his wife at the hospital. But he has lost several efforts to have federal courts overturn part of his conviction on corruption charges or to grant him bail while his appeals are under review.
Attorneys have sent a letter to President Barack Obama, updating him on Lura Lynn Ryan's condition, hoping Obama will grant Ryan clemency.
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