This is a conversation from the exercise from the Advanced Grammar in Use by Cambridge University Press:
A: How was your weekend?
B: Not great, actually. I'd really been looking forward to a relaxing couple of days. But early on Saturday morning Mom phoned to say that Dad had been taken ill.
A: Oh no! What had happened?
B: She had just heard that he had been flown by helicopter to hospital in Edinburgh from a village called Contin he had been fishing with my Uncle Mark.
A: And is he okay? What's wrong with him?
B: Well, Uncle Mark said that Dad had been complaining of a bad headache most of yesterday, but he hadn't wanted to go back to the hotel and spoil the day. But then in the evening, just as they had stopped fishing for the day, he had collapsed...
A: Has he had [1] any health problems recently?
B: Well, he's been suffering [2] from stress for some time, but we had thought a holiday in Scotland would be relaxing for him. He has worked [3] too hard for months, and we'd been trying to persuade him to have a break for ages before he agreed.
A: So did you go up to Scotland when you heard?
B: No, Mum has gone up to be with him, but the doctors have checked him over and have said that it's not too serious. They have given some medicine to bring down his blood pressure and have told him that he needs complete rest for a couple of months. So Mum's driving him back in the car tomorrow.
A: Well, send him my best wishes when you speak to him.
B: Thanks, I will do.
Here I can't figure out the use of present perfect (simple and continuous) in places [1], [2] and [3]. Regarding the context, the question given in place [1] seems to be about Dad's recent health problems but not including a period of time since he last fell ill as it would make no sense. In my view, this suggests that the past perfect might be a better fit here because the question is all about the past situation or activity before another past event. But the answer key of the book suggests that the present perfect probably is the only option here. Isn't it? Similarly the same applies to [2] and [3].
So my questions are:
- How can we justify the use of the present perfect here?
- Would the past perfect be an equally good fit here?