Governor (Pataki) Was Sicker Than the Public Knew

[DoYouEverWonder]

March 1, 2006

Gov. George E. Pataki's ruptured appendix left him more seriously ill than his staff and doctors previously acknowledged, a team of surgeons revealed in a news conference yesterday.

The surgeons, who have been treating the governor at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia hospital in Manhattan for the last week, said for the first time that he had suffered peritonitis and abdominal abscesses — both potentially life-threatening conditions — and fever. They would not predict when he might be able to leave the hospital, but said that it could be as long as two more weeks.

In the governor's first seven days at NewYork-Presbyterian, doctors there did not make any public statements on his condition, and his staff members gave only cursory information. Yesterday, the surgeons spoke for the first time but were elusive in addressing certain key points.

They used the word "peritonitis" — the name of a potentially fatal inflammation of the abdominal lining — only after being pressed repeatedly by reporters. They also described abscesses but declined to use that word, and declined to say how high a fever Mr. Pataki had. And although they said that his bowel function was impaired but improving, they would not elaborate despite repeated questioning.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/01/nyregion/01pataki.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Nice of them to let the public know. Seems Pataki is still sicker then they are admitting?

[JI7]

1. whatever it is i hope he does get through this ok

[aquart]

2. We guessed here at DU.

I am curious as to whether the governor is responding to medication. Also, what are the longterm after-effects of peritonitis.

[Fredda Weinberg]

20. I survived it

For females, it's a serious threat to fertility, but for someone Pataki's age, it's a matter of fighting infection. If he survives, he should have no long-term effects.

[Missy M]

3. If he still has to be in the hospital two or more weeks it....

does sound more serious than the doctors are saying.

[aquart]

4. i found this which was simple enough for me to understand;

<http://www.northmemorial.com/HealthEncyclopedia/content/1684.asp>

But it says the condition is usually corrected by the apendectomy. Which he had, right?

<http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=71919>

Another two weeks? I thought they were saying something along the lines of "as long as it takes."

[Missy M]

5. They finally admitted the appendix burst and he has peritonitis,...

a very nasty condition. The first news release had it as simply an appendectomy and later as adhesions. Now they are reluctantly coming out and admitting his condition is serious. Why not tell the truth from the start?

[aquart]

6. Dunno. It would have been a shock if he'd died.

Hello, all is well. Oops, dead.

I mean, how would they do that?

[Rene]

8. I find it all a very suspicious sudden illness, and a suspicious lack

of information/concern in the msm this last week. Interesting timing for the NY stat governor to be out of commission. Wonder where he stood about the post takeover just prior to being 'suddenly struck ill'.

[WePurrsevere]

15. Pataki is against the port deal & has said he'd try to cancel the lease.

As a much more moderate Republican he's butted heads a few times with Bush & his neo-con admin.

Here's just one of the news articles I found about Pataki and the port deal:
http://www.nysun.com/article/27873

*edited to add dropped letter :hangover:

[JI7]

7. maybe they wanted to give time to inform family and close friends

before they went public with it.

[DoYouEverWonder]

9. 2 weeks?

Give me a break. Pataki had his appendix out almost two weeks ago. A week ago they move him to a hospital in NYC. Now they are telling the public that he's still sick and not getting better. The guy is a high government official. This has nothing to do with informing his family first.

[Demeter]

10. Maybe It's a Malpractice Case

Because somebody's got something to hide, obviously.

[WePurrsevere]

17. They may not have realize how much damage was done when it burst.

Infammation and infection can take time to show up since some folks fight them better then others and once they get hit some folks take to the antibiotics better then others. He also ended up with a blocked intestine which they're having to deal with.

There seems to be some pretty clear step by step details as to what happened in this NYS "Journal" news article:
http://www.thejournalnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060301/NEWS05/603010355/1021

It sounds like he's doing much better and is working from his hospital bed. Hopefully he'll be back on his feet and able to continue fighting the port deal in person soon.

[hlthe2b]

19. A little bit of CYA it appears:

At Hudson Valley, Dr. Wiji Ratnathicam, the senior attending surgeon, told reporters that although the governor's appendix had burst, the rupture was in its initial stages, and there had been no sign of contamination in the abdominal cavity.
snip...

Yesterday, Amory, the Columbia surgeon, said that "by definition" a burst appendix means the spread of infection in the abdomen.


Duhhhh.... Did Dr. Ratnathicm think he could visualize those bacteria in the abdomen when he pronounced "no sign of contamination in the abdominal cavity?" :eyes:

[no_hypocrisy]

11. Peronitis trivia: Rudolph Valentino died of it in 1926 at a very young

age and at the height of his career. By the time the doctors figured out what his problem was, it was too late to save him.

[Bridget Burke]

12. Harry Houdini died of peritonitis at 52....

In the "old days" peritonitis was almost always a death sentence. Today, it's still nothing to take lightly.

[no_hypocrisy]

14. Now THAT'S an interesting story. HH used to invite audience members

to punch him in the gut to show he could take the blow. A couple of college students came by his dressing room after a show and wanted to take the challenge. Before Houdini (nee Erich Weiss) could tighten his abdominal muscles to protect himself, one student gave him a jointed jab in the stomach. This trauma caused internal bleeding and allegedly several ruptured organs including his spleen and intestinal tract.

[woodsprite]

13. My uncle recovered from a case of a ruptured appendix.

He had no previous pain other than a twinge that felt like a stitch in his side. He was lucky. He had been visiting my aunt who was in the hospital having some surgery. It burst when he was leaving the hospital, passed out on the hospital steps. They said that if it had happened when he was home alone, he may not have lived thru it.

[Fredda Weinberg]

21. I was home when it happened

It just made the recovery longer.

Try to stay away from antibiotics ... the fact that I'd never been treated with 'em before helped.

[A Simple Game]

16. I never have nor ever will vote for him, but he isn't too bad

for a Republican, well what calls itself Republican now anyway. I wish him well.

I can remember when Republicans were human, Rockefeller and Javits, for example.

[Infomaniac]

18. I barely survived peritonitis

and the abcess thing when I was 9 years old. I remember being in the hospital for a month and out of school for 3 months. Even with the miracle of antibiotics, this is still a very serious illness. When my husband and I heard about this a week or so ago, I said Pataki's not going to be feeling well for a while.