Castro prognosis 'very grave,' says Spanish paper
Citing Madrid hospital sources, it said he had three failed operations. A Cuban envoy called that a lie.
MADRID, Spain - Fidel Castro has had at least three failed operations and complications from an intestinal infection, and the Cuban leader faces "a very grave prognosis," a Spanish newspaper reported yesterday.
A Cuban diplomat in Madrid said the reports were lies and declined to comment further.
The newspaper El Pais cited two unidentified sources from the Gregorio Maranon hospital in Madrid. The facility employs surgeon Jose Luis Garcia Sabrido, who flew to Cuba in December to treat the 80-year-old Castro.
In a report on its Web site, El Pais said: "A grave infection in the large intestine, at least three failed operations and various complications have left the Cuban dictator, Fidel Castro, laid up with a very grave prognosis."
Cuba has released little information on Castro's condition since he temporarily ceded power in July to his younger brother, Defense Minister Raul Castro, until he could recover from emergency intestinal surgery.
El Pais' report was a rare detailed description from a major media outlet on Castro's health.
The report was not made public in Cuba, where the government runs the media and Cubans have become accustomed to very limited details about their leader's health.
The U.S. government had speculated that Castro had cancer - a supposition denied by Garcia Sabrido. Some U.S. doctors believed Castro was suffering from diverticular disease, which can cause bleeding in the lower intestine, especially in people over 60. In severe cases, emergency surgery may be required.
Such a diagnosis was supported by El Pais, which reported that its sources said Castro had suffered a bout of the disease.
"In the summer, the Cuban leader bled abundantly in the intestine," El Pais reported. "This adversity led him to the operating table, according to the medical sources. His condition worsened because the infection spread and caused peritonitis, the inflammation of the membrane that covers the digestive organs."
The recovery from the first operation, in which part of his large intestine was extracted and the colon was connected to the rectum, did not go well, resulting in peritonitis, the report said.
A second operation to clean and drain the infected area was conducted. Doctors removed the remainder of Castro's large intestine and created an artificial anus. But this operation also failed, El Pais said.
Castro was then hit with inflammation of the bile duct. He developed cholecystitis, an inflammation of the gall bladder, which El Pais said has an 80 percent mortality rate.
A prosthetic device made in South Korea was implanted in the bile duct and failed, and was replaced with one made in Spain, the report said.
El Pais said that in December, when Garcia Sabrido visited, Castro had an abdominal wound that was leaking more than a pint of fluids a day, causing "a severe loss of nutrients." The Cuban leader was being fed intravenously, the report said.
Garcia Sabrido's secretary said he would not comment on the report.