Palestinian Leader Has Heart Procedure
Associated Press
Date: 06-01-05
By MOHAMMED DARAGHMEH, Associated Press Writer
RAMALLAH, West Bank - Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas is recovering from a heart procedure performed Wednesday at a hospital in Jordan, a senior Palestinian official said.
Abbas was taken to a hospital in Amman, Jordan Wednesday complaining of fatigue, said Tayeb Abdel Rahim, a top Abbas aide. He underwent angioplasty, a procedure to clear out clogged coronary arteries, Abdel Rahim said.
Abbas, 69, is completing a lengthy trip abroad. Abdel Rahim said the procedure was successful, and Abbas is expected back in the West Bank on Thursday as planned.
In Amman, however, the acting Palestinian chief of mission in Amman, Ata Khairy, said Abbas underwent a brief checkup at an Amman hospital on a heart procedure that he had several years ago.
Khairy added Abbas "was feeling well" and was staying overnight at a guest palace in the Jordanian capital.
Abbas has no known history of heart ailments, but Palestinian officials said he has high blood pressure. In the past, he has battled cancer and eye ailments.
Since succeeding the late Yasser Arafat in January, Abbas has appeared in good health and has not canceled or postponed meetings.
However, over the past month he as made two long trips abroad, including stops in Asia, Russia and the Arab world ? his first lengthy journeys since assuming office.
News of his illness came just hours after Palestinian and Israeli officials agreed to set up a meeting between him and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on June 21. It would be their first encounter since Feb. 8, when they met in Egypt and declared a cease-fire that has significantly reduced Palestinian-Israeli violence after more than four years of bloodshed.
Palestinian officials in the West Bank and Gaza would give no further details of Abbas' condition beyond saying he had undergone angioplasty, the procedure was successful, and he would return to his headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah at midday Thursday on schedule.
Angioplasty is a common procedure in which a tiny balloon is threaded through the body into the heart and then inflated in a partially clogged coronary artery, flattening the plaque along the artery walls and restoring circulation. It is often combined with stenting, in which tiny mesh tubes are threaded into arteries to keep the blood flowing smoothly.
The procedure often requires a one-night stay in a hospital.
Clogged coronary arteries can lead to a heart attack. If angioplasty is unsuccessful or cannot be performed, surgeons resort to bypass surgery ? removing veins from another part of the body, usually the legs, and replacing the damaged coronary arteries with them.
Bypass procedures are open-heart surgery, and while they are considered routine in modern medicine, the procedure is major surgery and requires weeks of recuperation.
Source
FAIR USE NOTICE
This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. |
|