Wed Jan 17, 12:29 AM ET
HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuban leader
Fidel Castro chose to avoid a colostomy and opted for riskier intestinal
surgery that led to serious complications, the Spanish newspaper El Pais
said in its Wednesday edition.
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The shortcut involved sewing the colon to the rectum but did not heal
properly and broke apart, releasing gastric fluid with feces that caused
serious infection, El Pais said on its Web site.
The newspaper reported a day earlier that Castro's prognosis was "very
serious" and that he is being fed intravenously after three failed
operations for diverticulitis, or pouch-like bulges in the large
intestine that get infected.
El Pais cited medical sources at the same Madrid hospital where a
surgeon who examined Castro in late December works.
The 80-year-old leader has not been seen in public since late July, when
he was rushed to surgery and ceded power to his brother Raul for the
first time since Cuba's 1959 revolution.
A colostomy, the usual procedure for diverticulitis after removing part
of the intestine, is an opening in the abdomen to release stool into an
external bag. A second operation is required to rejoin the intestine.
"Castro and his entourage, according to medical sources close to the
case, rejected this approach because they considered it uncomfortable
and did not want him to undergo a second operation," El Pais said.
The advantage of the shorter procedure was that Castro could have been
back on his feet within days if it had worked, the paper said. Instead,
he suffered a second peritonitis, or infection, requiring two further
operations, it added.
The Spanish surgeon who examined Castro, Dr. Jose Luis Garcia Sabrido,
said on his return to Madrid that the Cuban leader needed no further
surgery and was recovering slowly. On Tuesday, his secretary said he had
not changed his outlook for Castro's recovery.
Castro's prolonged absence and the secrecy surrounding his condition in
Cuba has fueled speculation he is so ill he may never return to power.
U.S. doctors said Tuesday's report in El Pais suggested Castro had
received questionable or even botched care.
"It sounds like they tried to spare him the colostomy, which would have
been the safer and more conservative approach," said Dr. Meyer Solny, a
gastrointestinal expert at New York Presbyterian Hospital.
(Additional reporting by Tom Brown in Miami)
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070117/ts_nm/cuba_castro_health_dc_1
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