Spanish doctor disputes Castro health report
Source: Reuters
MIAMI, Jan 17 (Reuters) - A Spanish surgeon who examined Fidel Castro last month has disputed a Madrid newspaper report that the Cuban leader is in serious condition after three failed operations on his large intestine, CNN said on Wednesday. The report in Tuesday's El Pais, which said the veteran revolutionary faced a "very serious" prognosis, fueled widespread speculation that he was probably dying. He has not been seen in public since shortly before he handed over power to his brother, Defense Minister Raul Castro, on July 31, and his health has been cloaked in absolute secrecy in his communist-ruled island nation. But Dr. Jose Luis Garcia Sabrido, who visited the 80-year-old Castro in late December, was quoted by CNN as saying there had been "some progressive improvement" in his health since he first underwent emergency intestinal surgery in July. "The only truthful parts of the newspaper's reports are the name of the patient, that he has been operated on, and that he has had complications. The rest is rumors," Garcia Sabrido said. The doctor confirmed he had examined Castro last month for 90 minutes, at the request of Cuban authorities, according to CNN. But it said he declined to go into details about Castro's condition or the specifics of the El Pais report, saying only that they were "not in line with reality, are not truthful and are not real." The Madrid hospital where Garcia Sabrido works said neither he nor his secretary were available for comment late on Wednesday. After his visit to Cuba in December, Garcia Sabrido told reporters that Castro did not have cancer and could return to govern Cuba if he recovered fully from his surgery. El Pais said its report, focusing on what it described as failed operations to remove infected bulges in Castro's large intestine, was based on two unidentified medical sources at the same hospital where Garcia Sabrido works. In a new report on Wednesday, El Pais said Castro personally made a decision to avoid a routine colostomy, an opening in the abdomen to release stool into an external bag, opting for a riskier short-cut operation that went wrong. Officials in Havana have not commented on the reports.
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