After....
Posted on 11/24/2004 8:43:15 PM PST by omniscient
Was it poison or just spoiled sushi?
Politician's face fuels speculation Illness destroys movie-star looks
WILLIAM J. KOLE ASSOCIATED PRESS
VIENNA, Austria—As Ukraine's popular opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko claimed victory yesterday in hotly contested presidential elections, mystery continued to shroud an appearance-altering illness that twice prompted him to check into a Vienna hospital.
Yushchenko accused Ukrainian authorities of poisoning him.
His detractors suggested he'd eaten some bad sushi, an idea he scoffed at.
Adding to the intrigue, the Austrian doctors who treated him sought police protection, and asked foreign experts to help determine if his symptoms had been caused by toxins found in biological weapons.
Medical experts said they might never know for sure what caused the dramatic change in Yushchenko's appearance since he first sought treatment at Vienna's private Rudolfinerhaus clinic on Sept. 10.
Known for his ruggedly handsome, almost movie-star looks, Yushchenko's complexion is now grayish and pockmarked. His face is haggard, swollen and partially paralyzed. One eye often tears up.
Doctors at Rudolfinerhaus declined to comment yesterday.
By the time Yushchenko checked out of the clinic last month after returning for follow-up treatment, physicians said they could neither prove nor disprove whether he had been poisoned.
Dr. Nikolai Korpan, who oversaw Yushchenko's treatment in Vienna, said the cause of his illness remained "totally open."
At Rudolfinerhaus, Yushchenko underwent a week of intensive treatment for several illnesses, including acute pancreatitis, a viral skin disease and nerve paralysis on the left side of his face, Korpan said.
Clinic director Michael Zimpfer said doctors were unable to explain some of Yushchenko's symptoms and could not rule out stress or a viral infection.
Yushchenko's doctors in Kiev, the Ukrainian capital, said they had determined that "chemicals not of a food origin" had triggered the illness.
Zimpfer and the clinic's chief physician, Dr. Lothar Wicke — who requested police protection after receiving an anonymous threat while treating Yushchenko — later asked for outside help from "a specialist in military operations and biological weapons," the Austria Press Agency reported.
Earlier this month, Volodymyr Syvkovych, head of a 15-member Ukrainian parliamentary commission that investigated the mysterious illness, said a forensic medical examination found no traces of "any biological weapons" in Yushchenko's blood, nails, hair or urine.
Yushchenko has ridiculed the notion circulated by political opponents that he simply ate a bad plate of sushi washed down with too much cognac.
"It was certainly not spoiled food," he said last month.
AP-Austian Satire?
***My first post -- be gentle.***
Keep up the good work!
we gotta send jimmy carter there fast.
After....
&^Ya did good.
It's clear he was abducted by aliens, aged 30 years overnight and returned home.
..and Kerry would be Top Dog
Holy cow. Thanks for posting the pics.
Drug-induced accelerated decrepitude, sounds like something the KGB would come up with.
Just a case of "bad sushi?"
Or could it be that the good Christian Putin and his henchmen in Kiev had something to do with it?
Good L-rd. That is a horrible condition on his skin. It seems awfully fishy to me. What the heck is going on in the Ukraine??
Holy crap! What the heck caused that??????
Holy cow. Dorian Gray in reverse.
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