Former President Jimmy Carter's Health Challenges Over The Years

On February 18, 2023, The Carter Center issued a statement about the health of former President Jimmy Carter. "After a series of short hospital stays, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter today decided to spend his remaining time at home with his family and receive hospice care instead of additional medical intervention," the statement read. "He has the full support of his family and his medical team. The Carter family asks for privacy during this time and is grateful for the concern shown by his many admirers."

The 39th president has battled several serious health concerns before his passing in December 2024. He was diagnosed with melanoma in 2015. The cancer first spread to his liver and later to his brain, and he went through several treatments to cure his cancer. First, he had surgery, followed by radiation; in addition, Carter underwent immunotherapy, a more experimental cancer treatment that proved successful.

Carter also had other health challenges along the way.

In October 2019, the then-95-year-old Jimmy Carter fell at home and fractured his pelvis. The Carter Center provided an update on Twitter. "Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter had a fall yesterday evening at his home in Plains, Ga.," they wrote. "He has been admitted to Phoebe Sumter Medical Center for observation and treatment of a minor pelvic fracture. He is in good spirits and is looking forward to recovering at home." This was one of three falls that the former president took around that time. He'd previously fallen and needed stitches on his forehead. He fell again and broke his hip.

While the falls were serious, it was Carter's cancer diagnosis that really altered his life, and put death in perspective. While speaking at a church in Georgia, "I assumed, naturally, that I was going to die very quickly," he said, per CNN. He continued, "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." He admitted that he would miss his family, his work, and the Sunday School classes he continued to teach at the Maranatha Baptist Church, but besides that, he felt peaceful.