I Really Hate Doing The Media's Job For Them

Pataki undergoes second surgery

Governor is moved to city hospital, where abdominal problems after appendectomy require additional care

BY JENNIFER SMITH
NEWSDAY ALBANY BUREAU

February 22, 2006


Five days after his appendix was removed, Gov. George Pataki underwent a second operation to relieve a blockage in his digestive system.

The surgery lasted a little more than an hour yesterday afternoon and was completed without incident at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia in Manhattan, Pataki spokesman David Catalfamo said in a statement.[....]

The operation took place about four hours after Pataki was transferred to the Manhattan facility from Hudson Valley Hospital Center in Westchester County.

Describing the move as "a precautionary measure," Quinn said doctors at the Manhattan hospital evaluated the governor's condition when he was admitted, and then decided to operate.[...]

Some disruption of intestinal processes is not uncommon after an appendectomy, said Dr. Marc Shapiro, a chief of general surgery at Stony Brook University, who is familiar with the procedure.

Sometimes, Shapiro said, the touch of a surgeon's hand can send the bowel into spasms that disrupt its normal function for up to five days - a condition not normally treated by surgery.

Other times, scar tissue or adhesions can lead to a kinking or twisting of the bowel, he said.

You know the question I'm going to ask, but let me ask it anyway: Why?

Why was it necessary to perform this second surgery? Why was it necessary to move Pataki over a hundred miles, from a hospital that clearly had the facilities to handle an appendectomy and what amounts to a not-uncommon post-surgical condition, reading Dr. Shapiro's comments? Why doesn't the 100-mile ambulance ride (assuming he wasn't choppered in, in which case, there's another "why?" on the horizon) constitute its own peril to the governor of the state? Was the risk to his health that great? Why isn't he taking a dump? I mean, the man is full enough of shit to begin with!

snarkasm, snarcasm, snarky

New York, George Pataki, Pataki, appendectomy