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Nancy Reagan was reportedly doing well in a hospital. (Associated Press/file 2007) |
SANTA MONICA, Calif. - Nancy Reagan was hospitalized yesterday after falling in her home in Bel-Air, her spokeswoman said.
Reagan, 86, was doing well after being taken to St. John's Health Center in Santa Monica, spokeswoman Joanne Drake.
Doctors determined that she did not break a hip as feared, but Drake said Reagan will be staying at the hospital overnight for observation.
She said Reagan is staying in the same room where former president Ronald Reagan stayed after he broke his hip at home in 2001.
She said Reagan is "joking and visiting in her room."
Reagan's family physician recommended the overnight stay "as a precaution," Drake said.
Nancy Reagan's last major public appearance was at the Jan. 30 Republican presidential debate at the Reagan Library in Simi Valley, Calif., where she sat with Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.
In 2005, Reagan slipped and fell in a London hotel room and was released after being examined at a hospital.
She had a cancerous left breast removed in 1987.
Ronald Reagan died in 2004 after living with Alzheimer's disease for many years.
Despite conservative opposition, Nancy Reagan has become an active supporter of legislation to foster embryonic stem cell research, which some scientists believe could lead to a treatment and possible cure for diseases such as Alzheimer's.
During her retirement in California, she also has worked on her longtime campaign to help teach children to "just say no" to drugs.
In 1989, she published a book, "My Turn," in which she gave an account of her years in the White House.
© Copyright 2008 Globe Newspaper Company.
