Ex-president Jimmy Carter breaks hip ahead of turkey hunt

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter fell and broke his hip on Monday as he was preparing to leave his home in Georgia for a turkey-hunting trip, and has undergone surgery to repair the injury, a representative said.

Carter, 94, a Democrat who was elected president in 1976, was accompanied by his wife, Rosaylnn, 91, while recovering from the operation, which doctors said was successful, according to a statement from his nonprofit organization, the Carter Center.

The surgery was performed at a medical center in Americus, Georgia, about 10 miles (16 km) east of the Carters' home in Plains.

"President Carter said his main concern is that turkey season ends this week, and he has not reached his limit," the statement said. "He hopes the state of Georgia will allow him to roll over the unused limit to next year."

Carter, who was governor of Georgia from 1971 to 1975, served a single four-year term in the White House as the nation's 39th president and was defeated in his re-election bid by Republican Ronald Reagan in 1980.

The former peanut farmer-turned-politician, received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 for his humanitarian work, disclosed in August 2015 that he had been diagnosed with a form of skin cancer called melanoma.

In 2017, Carter was briefly hospitalized after suffering dehydration during a trip to Canada.

Carter has lived longer after leaving the White House than any former president in U.S. history.