Ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro is in 'very serious condition' after being hit by infection following three failed intestinal operations.
MADRID: Ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro is in 'very serious condition' after being hit by infection following three failed intestinal operations, the Spanish newspaper El Pais reported on its website on Monday.
Citing medical sources at the Gregorio Maranon hospital in Madrid, from which a doctor traveled to Havana last month to examine Castro, the newspaper said the Cuban leader is suffering from a "serious infection of the large intestine following three failed operations and various complications that have degenerated into peritonitis."
Peritonitis is a potentially fatal painful inflammation of the lining of the abdominal cavity often caused by infection in an organ.
Unless successfully treated, it can lead to organ failure and obstruction of the intestine.
When Garcia Sabrido, who heads the hospital's surgery unit and is described by the Spanish media as a top gastroenterologist, returned from Havana at the end of last month, he described Castro's condition as 'fine'.
Cuba's iconic leader "is not suffering from a malignant illness but from a benign process with a series of complications," said Sabrido, who declined to be more specific due to medical confidentiality.
But medical sources in the hospital told El Pais detailed the problems that forced Castro, 80, to hand over power to his brother Raul at the end of July after 47 years in power following a reported intestinal operation.
The hospital sources said Castro began suffering from an inflammation of his large intestine in the first half of last year, requiring an operation to remove part of the large intestine and rectum.
Continued infection impeded his recovery, requiring a second operation to remove all of the large intestine and rectum, according to the hospital sources.
Castro was then hit with an inflammation of the bile duct that blocked secretion of digestive enzymes into the small intestine.
The sources told the newspaper that Castro was fitted with an artificial duct made in South Korea, which failed, and was then replaced with one manufactured in Spain.
The bile duct problems that Castro suffers from have a "high rate of mortality" of around 80 per cent, the sources told El Pais.
Last week top US spy chief John Negroponte said that Fidel Castro, who has not been seen in public for six months, may have only days or months to live.
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}