Mother Teresa Leaves Hospital

Eager to return to work, Mother Teresa was released from the hospital in a wheelchair Friday morning - a day ahead of schedule - after more than two weeks of treatment for lung and heart problems.

Appearing wan and frail, the 86-year-old was placed on a stretcher and driven by ambulance to the headquarters of Missionaries of Charity, the order she founded nearly 50 years ago. Doctors had hoped to keep her under observation until Saturday to give her a chance to regain more strength, but she insisted on leaving early.

“God will take care of me,” she told her doctors, according to her physician, Asim Bardhan. He quoted her as saying: “I’ve got a lot of work to do.”

The Nobel Peace Prize laureate was admitted to the Woodlands Nursing Home Aug. 20 with recurring symptoms of malaria, and later developed an irregular heart beat.