‘I Have Lived My Life’- Nelson Mandela

Nearly 15 years ago Nelson Mandela was unperturbed by his own death, telling a dying teenager that he had lived his life to the full.
The video dating from 1998, broadcast by American news channel CBS on Thursday as Mandela remained in critically ill in hospital, showed the towering South African statesman visiting a 15-year-old, also named Nelson.

"Understanding the fact that I'm near the end, I remain optimistic with my morale very high, because I'm saying I have lived my life," the statesman, then 80, told the teen, who was dying of brain cancer.

In the amateur video the boy, his head shaved, smiled shyly from his bed at the peace icon, who wore one of his colourful trademark shirts.

Posters of cars adorned the wall next to where the then-president sat holding a teacup.

"If your spirit is not optimistic, your morale is not high, medicine is not very effective," the then president said.

The boy died under three months after the visit.

Broadcast as the 94-year-old nears one month in hospital, the words carry added poignancy.

According to court documents from Mandela family lawyers, filed nine days ago, doctors believed Mandela was in a "permanent vegetative state" and they advised his family to turn off his life support machine.

South Africa's presidency has since said his condition has improved and on Thursday denied he is in a vegetative state.

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 Nelson Mandela's doctors have dismissed the idea of switching off the ailing anti-apartheid icon's life support until there was a genuine state of organ failure, a close friend of the South African former president has said.

Denis Goldberg, a friend of Mandela for more than five decades, told the weekly 'City Press' that the matter of switching off the life support had been discussed and dismissed.

"I was told that the doctors said they would only consider such a situation if there was a genuine state of organ failure," Goldberg said, as the 94-year-old leader spent nearly one month in the hospital.

"Since that hasn't occurred, they were quite prepared to go on stabilising him until he recovers," Goldberg added.

Confirming that Mandela was breathing with assistance from machines, Goldberg told the weekly: "But he responds to voices and tries to talk, yet mumbles."

"He was dozing when I got there. I spoke and told him who I was and he opened his eyes and looked at me. I spoke to him for about 10 minutes and he responded positively to what I was saying.

"He did not answer because he can't talk, with the pipe in his throat, but he was moving his jaw as if he wanted to talk."

Mandela, who turns 95 on July 18, was hospitalised at a Pretoria hospital on June 8 with a recurring lung infection.

Court paper filed earlier this week in a bitter feud between Mandela family members cited Mandela's health as being in a "permanent vegetative state", but this was rejected by the Presidency which said Mandela remained in a critical but stable condition.

The court document had said that Mandela's doctors advised his family to turn off the ailing icon's life-support machines. http://www.dnaindia.com/world/1857784/report-doctors-rejected-turning-off-nelson-mandela-life-support-friend

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