Lady Thatcher faces several days in hospital after operation to pin her broken arm

Daily Mail (UK) ^ | 20th June 2009

[naturalman1975]

Lady Thatcher faces several more days in hospital after an operation on her broken arm.

Her son Sir Mark visited her today and said she had had a good night but would be likely to remain in London's Chelsea and Westminster Hospital longer than expected.

Sir Mark said yesterday that Lady Thatcher, 83, was likely to remain in hospital until at least Wednesday. Today he revised that estimate to say it was likely to be longer before she is allowed home.

A spokesman for Lady Thatcher described her condition as "comfortable" and said she was resting today.

The operation inserted a pin into Lady Thatcher's upper left arm which she broke in a fall earlier this month. Doctors decided on the move after the injury failed to heal as quickly as they would have liked.

[tiredoflaundry]

Prayers for a speedy recovery for Lady Thatcher!

[Professional Engineer]

Iron Lady bttt

[gidget7]

Prayers and best wishes, both for a speedy recovery for the Great Lady Thatcher!

[taillightchaser]

Lady Thatcher and President Reagan—the greatest patriots of our time. God bless both of them.

[Two Kids' Dad]

Question:

I thought a “Lady” was a woman who was married to a “Lord” and a “Dame” was a woman who had achieved her own status. Am I wrong? Shouldn’t she be called “Dame Thatcher”?

[ScottinVA]

Prayers for a speedy recovery, Lady Thatcher.

[karatemom]

Fix ‘er up, and have her run for President in 2012. You know, since it is now open to foreigners.

[GSP.FAN]

She was given the lady title in 1985.

Lady Companion of the Order of the Garter, the United Kingdom’s highest order of Chivalry.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Thatcher

[sushiman]

Dittos ! Loved her almost as much as Sir Ronald Maximus !

[Tax-chick]

A Dame is a woman who has been awarded a Knighthood. This is not unusual for political and cultural figures: Dame Barbara Cartland, the writer, for example, or Dame Kiri te Kanawa, the opera singer.

However, Margaret Thatcher was made a Baroness, which gives her the title Lady in her own right: She holds a life peerage as Baroness Thatcher, of Kesteven in the County of Lincolnshire, which entitles her to sit in the House of Lords.

"Life peerage" means her children do not inherit the title, which dies with her. They remain commoners unless they are awarded titles independently. Lawrence Olivier is another example of an awarded Barony. While many other actors were simply knighted - Sir Michael Caine, Sir Richard Burton - Olivier was named Baron Olivier of Brighton.

[ConorMacNessa]

Prayers up for Baroness Thatcher - one of the last bulwarks of Western Civilization!

Lamh Foistenach Abu!

[HighlyOpinionated]

How did Lady Thatcher get all that care so fast when my British cousin (the president of a horticultural college which trained the Queen’s landscapers) who’d had a heart attack and needed an MRI had to be placed on a waiting list and DIED before he was seen?

I don’t wish any ill upon the Lady because SHE is a Great Lady and deserves her place in history.

What I point out is . . . “Universal” British HealthCare is not “available when needed” healthcare.

Lady Thatcher probably has Private Health Care Insurance, anyway. My cousin trusted his Country.

Cheers for the Grand Iron Lady! With Scotch Whisky, I hope she doesn’t mind.

[naturalman1975]

A Lady can be the wife of a Lord or the wife of a Knight, but she can also be a Peeress in her own right. Lady Thatcher is both - when she ceased to be Prime Minister, her husband Denis Thatcher was initially Knighted as Sir Denis Thatcher (in fact he was made a Baronet, an hereditary knight which is why his son is now Sir Mark), as this allowed her to become Lady Thatcher, while remaining a Member of the House of Commons (a Peerage would have forced her to immediately move to the House of Lords). It also served to give Denis a title of his own, when his wife was ennobled as a Baroness (the wife of a Baron gets a courtesy title, the husband of a Baroness does not).

When she was made a Baroness in 1992, she went from being Lady Thatcher, the wife of a Knight to Lady Thatcher, the female equivalent of 'Lord'.

She is also a Lady of the Garter, a female equivalent to Knight of the Garter, the highest form of Knighthood - most female Knights are Dames, but the Garter is an exception to that rule.

[Winniesboy]

Very sorry to hear about your cousin: but I can say, as somebody who has had to rely on the NHS throughout a fairly long life with quite a few health problems since infancy, and also as somebody of no public distinction whatever, that I’ve always had immaculately speedy treatment in emergency circumstances. There are quite a few things wrong with the NHS: but also many things that work well - including, in my experience, response to emergencies.It’s interesting, by the way, that the (very good) private health insurers in Britain don’t offer emergency assistance, because they can’t hope to compete with the NHS’s resources.