Kidney treatment suspended as Pele improves

Pele AP PHOTO

SAO PAULO — Brazilian doctors say Pele’s condition is continuing to improve and they have suspended kidney treatment for the soccer great.

The Albert Einstein hospital says the 74-year-old remains in an intensive care unit but is no longer undergoing the hemodialysis that had been needed to help support his only kidney.

Doctors said Pele’s condition will be “reevaluated” in the next few days to see if they need to put him back on hemodialysis.

Pele was hospitalized on Monday after being diagnosed with a urinary tract infection that stemmed from a Nov. 13 surgery to remove kidney stones.

The hospital says Pele has been responding well to antibiotic treatment and shows no signs of the urinary infection.