Castro reported in grave condition

MADRID: Fidel Castro is gravely ill following three failed operations, the Spanish newspaper El Pais said on Tuesday in a report later dismissed by the Cuban leader's Spanish doctor.   

According to El Pais, an intestinal infection, followed by at least three operations and various complications had left Castro in a "very serious condition".   

The report on the El Pais website quoted medical sources at Madrid's Gregorio Maranon hospital, from where a doctor traveled to Havana last month to examine the 80-year-old revolutionary. Castro has not been seen in public since being taken ill in July.   

But the doctor, Jose Luis Garcia Sabrido, who is head of surgery and a leading gastroenterologist at Gregorio Maranon, rejected the El Pais report.   

"Any statement that doesn't come directly from his (Castro's) medical team is without foundation," Garcia Sabrido told CNN television.   

After his return from Havana on December 26, Garcia Sabrido stated that Castro did not have cancer, as was rumoured, and was making a steady recovery. He declined to be more specific, citing medical confidentiality.   

There has been mounting speculation over Castro's condition. Last week, a US intelligence chief said Castro was terminally ill and may have only days to live.   

But the US administration added nothing after the latest report. "We've seen the report out of El Pais. I think that as far as we can tell, it's sort of a round-up of previous health reports. We've got nothing new," White House spokesman Tony Snow told reporters.   

The communist government in Havana treats Castro's health like a state secret and neither the Havana authorities nor the tightly controlled Cuban media mentioned the El Pais report.   

The El Pais report referred to a "chain" of ailments afflicting the Cuban leader, following a "serious infection" of the large intestine he suffered last year.   

The complications worsened into peritonitis -- a potentially fatal inflammation of the lining of the abdominal cavity. It is often caused by an infection of an organ and often leads to organ failure.   

The sources cited by El Pais said Castro began suffering from an inflammation of his large intestine early last year, requiring an operation to remove part of the large intestine and rectum.   

The scars were slow to heal and 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 percent, the sources told El Pais.   

A British expert told AFP that, although he was not familiar with the full details of the case, the chances of Castro's survival seemed remote given his age and repeated complications.   

"For someone of 80 to come through that, the chances (of survival) must be pretty poor," said Nigel Scott, a consultant colo-rectal surgeon at the Royal Preston Hospital, northwestern England.   

Generally, the mortality from a bowel resection followed by peritonitis is around one in four, he said.   

Castro disappeared from public view in July after handing over power to his younger brother Raul for the first time in 47 years as Cuba's leader.   

He delayed public celebrations for his 80th birthday and named his brother interim leader on July 31.   

Castro's absence at a major military parade on December 2 stunned many Cubans and sparked speculation he might be seriously ill.   

Castro said on December 30 in a statement that his recuperation would be a long process, but that "the battle is far from lost." 

Castro recovery slow, involves health risk: Chavez

Cuban President Fidel Castro's recovery from surgery is slow and has risks, his close ally Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said on Tuesday, but he denied reports Castro's condition was serious.   

"He is not in a serious condition as some say, nor does he have cancer," Chavez told reporters during a visit to Ecuador. "He said it's a slow recovery process not without risk. He's 80 years old," said Chavez, who spoke by telephone with Castro earlier this month.   

A Spanish newspaper reported this week that Castro was in "very serious" condition and being fed intravenously after complications following intestinal surgery last year that forced the veteran Cuban leader to temporarily hand power over to his brother.