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Politics

Doctor: Castro doesn't have cancer

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published December 27, 2006

MADRID - A Spanish surgeon who treated Fidel Castro said the ailing Cuban leader does not have cancer, insisting Tuesday he was recovering slowly but progressively from a serious operation.

The comments by Dr. Jose Luis Garcia Sabrido, the chief surgeon at Madrid's Gregorio Maranon Hospital, represented the first independent medical assessment of Castro's condition since the Cuban leader underwent emergency intestinal surgery in July.

The Cuban government has kept Castro's condition a state secret, occasionally releasing photographs and videos of him to show he is convalescing.

Garcia Sabrido visited Havana last week to examine Castro and consult with his medical team. He told reporters Castro's condition is stable and he does not require additional surgery.

"He hasn't got cancer," Garcia Sabrido said, adding that he believed Castro could be physically capable of running the country again. "While respecting confidentiality, I can tell you that President Castro is not suffering from any malignant sickness."

Castro, 80, has not appeared in public since temporarily ceding power to his younger brother, Raul, after his surgery last summer. Garcia Sabrido declined to give precise details about Castro's condition, but said it was "a benign process in which there have been a series of complications."

Cuban authorities have denied Castro is suffering from terminal cancer as U.S. intelligence officials have said, but his prolonged absence has fueled increasing speculation that he will not return to power.

Some U.S. doctors believe Castro may suffer from diverticular disease, which can cause bleeding in the lower intestine, especially in people over 60. In severe cases, emergency surgery may be required.

Garcia Sabrido's specialty is in the digestive system and in transplants. In 1988, he wrote in the medical journal Archives of Surgery about a temporary stomach "zipper" that Spanish doctors had used on patients to provide repeated easy access for draining and treating abdominal infections.

[Last modified December 27, 2006, 12:19:57]