Doctors Advised Family To Unplug Mandela's Life Support Machine

Doctors treating Nelson Mandela said he was in a "permanent vegetative state" and advised his family to turn off his life support machine a week ago, according to court documents obtained by AFP on Thursday.

"He is in a permanent vegetative state and is assisted in breathing by a life support machine," 
"The Mandela family have been advised by the medical practitioners that his life support machine should be switched off.

"Rather than prolonging his suffering, the Mandela family is exploring this option as a very real probability," said the court filing dated June 26.

Since the document was written, the government, family members and people visiting Mandela have reported his condition has improved.

"He is clearly a very ill man, but he was conscious and he tried to move his mouth and eyes when I talked to him," Denis Goldberg, one of the men who was convicted with Mandela, told AFP after visiting him on Monday.

"He is definitely not unconscious," he said adding that "he was aware of who I was."

Goldberg said he was asked by Mandela's wife Graca Machel to pay him a visit "just to give him mental stimulation."