Posted on 09/08/2005 12:17:50 AM PDT by neverdem
JERUSALEM, Sept. 7 - The medical records of Yasir Arafat, which have been kept secret since his unexplained death last year at a French military hospital, show that he died from a stroke that resulted from a bleeding disorder caused by an unidentified infection.
The first independent review of the records, obtained by The New York Times, suggests that poisoning was highly unlikely and dispels a rumor that he may have died of AIDS. Nonetheless, the records show that despite extensive testing, his doctors could not determine the underlying infection.
Arafat seemed frail in his final months but not, by anyone's account, at death's door when he suddenly fell ill last October. After more than two weeks without improvement, he was airlifted to a French hospital, where he died on Nov. 11. The cause of death was never announced and speculation has remained rife.
The records indicate that Arafat did not receive antibiotics until Oct. 27, 15 days after the onset of his illness, which was originally diagnosed as "a flu." That was only two days before he was transferred to the Percy Army Teaching Hospital in Clamart, outside Paris, and it was probably too late to save him, according to Israeli and American experts consulted by The Times, who agreed to review the records on condition they not be named.
His doctors in Ramallah also did not seem to recognize that he suffered from a serious blood disorder, disseminated intravascular coagulation, or D.I.C., which was never controlled and led to his death.
But even the French doctors never discovered the specific cause of the infection that led to the bleeding disorder, the records show. "It's a big puzzle," said a specialist in infectious diseases.
The records make no mention of an AIDS test, an omission the experts found bizarre...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
That is not what they call it in San Francisco.
as long as he stays dead, i really don't care what killed him. i still say it was AIDS though, just cause it'll piss off the palis.
Actually I thought it was that disease you get from eating raw pork, what do they call it strychonosis or something like that?
Oh, gee, first reports were that he was probably poisoned by Jews.
I wonder who was 'stroking' him when he died
But they're absolutely, positively sure he's dead this time?
It's a shame the SOB died peacefully. Should have been a lot more painful.
"Yasser Arafat died earlier this week in Paris. And in lieu of flowers the Arafat family asked that everyone just throw rocks." --Jay Leno
"Yasser Arafat is now dead. Damn, just when the peace process was going so well." —David Letterman
"Yasser Arafat died last night. And this time it looks pretty permanent. How many times did he die this week? Like five? Six? He was turning into Kenny on 'South Park.'" —Jay Leno
"According to Palestinian sources Yasser Arafat is dead but improving." —David Letterman
"Yesterday, Yasser Arafat was finally able to leave his compound. And what an emotional scene — on the way out high-fiving all those suicide bombers." —David Letterman
"In an interview, Yasser Arafat's wife, this hypocrite, she lives in Paris by the way. She said she would gladly sacrifice her son for the Palestinian cause if she had one. She also said she would gladly become a suicide bomber herself, except she's allergic to dynamite. 'If it wasn't for that, I would gladly do it instead of shopping here in Paris.'" —Jay Leno
"After weeks of pleading from the United States, on Saturday Yasser Arafat finally condemned violence and terrorism in the Middle East. Nothing like a tank coming through your front door to make you change your mind." —Jay Leno
"Earlier today, for the first time, Yasser Arafat issued a statement in Arabic condemning terrorism. U.S. officials say the statement is a step in the right direction except for the last line which translates into 'wink, wink.'" —Tina Fey on Saturday Night Live's "Weekend Update"
"Yasser Arafat is sleeping on the floor in his office with his closest aides. He is the first leader to do that since Clinton." —Jay Leno
Who cares what this human debris died of. Just be glad that he is worm food.
From today's online Haaretz.com (generally left-wing Israeli publication)
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/622564.html
Experts: Yasser Arafat died of AIDS or poisoning
By Amos Harel, Haaretz Correspondent, and AP
An analysis of the confidential medical report on Yasser Arafat's death reveals three main possibilities as to the cause: poisoning, AIDS or an infection.
Israel and foreign doctors who have seen the report say the details do not lead to a conclusive determination on what caused the death.
After Arafat died on November 11, 2004 at a military hospital in Paris, copies of the pathology report compiled by the hospital staff - and kept under wraps until now - were handed over to Arafat's widow, Suha, and senior Palestinian Authority officials. The report's findings are now being published for the first time in the revised edition of "The Seventh War" by journalists Amos Harel and Avi Isacharoff, to be released next week by Yedioth Ahronoth in Hebrew.
The chapter of the book dealing with Arafat's death appears on Friday in the Haaretz magazine. To read the full story click here.
The report does not lift the veil of mystery surrounding Arafat's death entirely: It lists the immediate cause of death as a massive brain hemorrhage, but adds that "a discussion among a large number of medical experts... shows that it is impossible to pinpoint a cause that will explain the combination of symptoms that led to the death of the patient."
Dr. Ashraf al-Kurdi, Arafat's personal physician who played no part in the late PA chairman's medical care during the final weeks of his life, said that he knows that the French doctors found the AIDS virus in Arafat's blood. Al-Kurdi refuses to divulge the source of this information, but claims that the virus was put into Arafat's blood in an effort to blur the traces of poisoning, which was the cause of death.
[snip-- long article, see link above]
Stroke? So THAT'S the Arabic word for AIDS. I've always wondered how it was pronounced...
HANDS UP! Does anybody CARE what he died of so long as he just died? Or is it just me?
tires burning in the street as a sign of mourning.
I just love quaint customs from far away lands.
Arafat wasted for several years.
Poisoning, only if it were administered over time in incremental doses. Unlikely and illogical.
Infection, with no medical verification, as if he died from something no other human being has ever had???
Or AIDS. Yeah, maybe AIDS. We know they'll never confirm that! As a matter of fact, don't you imagine they'd show some evidence that it WASN'T AIDS if they could?
AIDS.
AIDS.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.