Doctors Remove Havel’s Respirator

President Vaclav Havel has been taken off of a respirator and is feeling better after surgery for lung cancer, said doctors in Prague, the capital. Surgeon Pavel Pafko said in a statement that the president was able to speak again now that a tube had been removed from his throat. Doctors removed a tumor from Havel’s right lung earlier this month. After the surgery, he developed pneumonia and was put on a respirator. Due to a tracheotomy doctors had performed to help him breathe, Havel was unable to speak and was communicating only by written notes.