Spain’s King Emeritus, Juan Carlos is to undergo a heart procedure, Casa Real announced last night.
King Juan Carlos will undergo the operation on Saturday, 24 August at the Quirón de Pozuelo Clinic in Spain’s capital of Madrid. It was decided to have the procedure by the end of August after an annual check-up on 11 and 12 June.
This will be His Majesty’s 17th surgery, his first being in 1954 when his appendix was removed. His last major operation was in April 2018 when doctors operated on his right knee at the private Sanitas La Moraleja University Clinic in Madrid. He also had a procedure in March of this year under his eye to remove basal cell carcinoma – a very common form of skin cancer that begins in the basal cells often after being exposed to too much sun.
The King has been having different health troubles over the past few years. In 2010, he had a benign tumour removed from his right lung, and two years later, he fractured his hip in three locations which required surgery. He had another hip operation in September 2013.
King Juan Carlos came to the throne after the regime of dictator Fransico Franco fell in 1975 after Franco’s death. Franco had made Juan Carlos a Prince of Spain, mentoring him to continue his government once he had passed. However, when Juan Carlos became King of Spain, he brought democracy back to the country after decades of Franco’s authoritarian regime.
The former monarch, 81, retired from public duties on 2 June of this year – five years after his abdication in favour of his only son and youngest child, Felipe. His son now reigns as King Felipe VI.
