UPDATED: Norway’s 89-year-old King Harald V wound up in the hospital again this week while on holiday, this time in the Canary Islands. He was released on Thursday but experts called his apparent attempt to relax in warmer climes a “calculated risk,” given the flying and weather change that left him dehydrated and suffering from what his doctor called a skin infection in a leg.
Staff at the Royal Palace in Oslo opted to announce the latest of the recent troubles for the monarch on Tuesday evening. Palace staff said he’d been admitted to the Hospital Universitario Hospiten Sur on the island of Tenerife for “treatment of an infection and dehydration.” His personal physician traveled from Oslo on Wednesday morning “to assist” the local health care officials and “assess the elderly king’s situation.”
Both King Harald and Queen Sonja had decided to once again head off on a winter holiday, two years after the king also fell ill with an infection while they were in Malaysia in 2024. That prompted emergency surgery at the local hospital on Langkawi to install a pacemaker before he was flown home to Oslo in a specially outfitted SAS medevac jet.
Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre said on Wednesday that he was willing to repeat that sort of medical evacuation at state expense if necessary. That may not be necessary: Norwegian media reported that Queen Sonja visited her husband at the hospital Wednesday afternoon and that his physician, Dr Bjørn Bendz, had arrived on Tenerife. Bendz later issued a statement that the monarch’s general health was “good” and that he was “responding well to treatment.”
On Thursday palace staff announced he’d been released from hospital after two days of treatment. Bendz will remain on the island “for a few days,” to follow the monarch’s recovery as the royal couple continue their “private holiday” on Tenerife.
The palace staff had also initially noted that King Harald’s condition was “good” given the circumstances, something they hadn’t claimed during the Malaysian drama. Many were also quick to note that the royal couple were closer to home this time and Støre told newspaper VG that the elderly monarch was also “getting good treatment” on Tenerife.
Dr Håkon Ihle-Hansen, leader of the Norwegian geriatric association, told several media outlets that travel increases the risk of infection, through contact with lots of people, temperature variation and more exposure to virus and bacteria. While people of all ages often catch a cold during travel, elderly travelers have lower resistance, their immune systems respond more slowly and they can thus become more seriously ill.
“The king often has health care personnel with him when traveling and they’ve all taken necessary precautions,” Ihle-Hansen told VG. “Then it’s a calculated risk, and they all landed on the decision that this trip could be good for the king.” The couple has been under near constant stress because of scandals stirred up by their daughter Princess Martha Louise, their step-grandson Marius Borg Høiby and their daughter-in-law Crown Princess Mette-Marit.
Dr Øystein Fossdal, another expert in geriatrics, noted that “new impressions, physical activity and social contact can provide cognitive stimulation.” A change of scenery “can also have considerable health advantages,” he told VG, “also for those of high age.”
Tenerife has also, meanwhile, been hit by strong winds from the south that bring sand from Sahara and unusually high temperatures. The weather was better on Wednesday, with clearer skies and lower temperatures, reported NRK. King Harald was expected to remain in the hospital “for a few more days” of observation and further treatment, according to his doctor.
NewsinEnglish.no/Nina Berglund
