Cairo (CNN) -- The recent health crisis for former Egyptian ruler Hosni Mubarak started when he slipped in a prison bathroom, his attorney told CNN Thursday. 

The ousted strongman hurt his neck and developed a blood clot after the fall in Tora prison, attorney Farid El Deeb said. 

El Deeb said Mubarak was taken off life-support equipment and his health improved on Wednesday, a day after grim and contradictory news emerged over the 84-year-old man's health. 

The state-run Middle East News Agency reported that he was "clinically dead." The nation's military rulers denied the report, with one general saying Mubarak's health was deteriorating and he was in critical condition. 

Mubarak was transferred from Tora prison to Maadi Military Hospital. Now, El Deeb said, his ailing client is out of a coma and under the care of doctors at the facility's intensive care unit. 

"He had slipped in the bathroom of Tora prison and hurt his neck, which caused a blood clot that started all his medical problems that night, last Tuesday, including heart attack and irregular breathing," El Deeb said. 

He said he had warned before that "the prison hospital was not equipped with well-trained nurses or personnel to assist him or proper equipment." 

The lawyer said he hadn't been informed about how the latest bout of health problems started because he was in Lebanon when Mubarak fell sick. 

"I was getting information by phone with a minute-to-minute update, but I learned that he fell when I returned to Cairo," he said. 
Were there daily reports of his status?
"I was getting information by phone with a minute-to-minute update