DENVER -
The tuberculosis patient who created an international health scare when he flew to Europe for his wedding has been released from a hospital today after successfully completing inpatient treatment.
Officials said that Andrew Speaker, an Atlanta lawyer who had a multidrug-resistant strain of TB, underwent surgery on July 17 to remove part of his lung.
The doctors who treated him at National Jewish Medical and Research Center in Denver don't consider him to be completely cured.
But the hospital said the lung operation and antibiotic treatments have eliminated any detectable evidence of infection.
Speaker will still need to continue antibiotic treatment for about two years.
Hospital spokesman William Allstetter said today that Speaker had left Denver in an air ambulance and returned to Georgia to recuperate.
He would not specify where except to say that Speaker was not in a hospital.
