image:
news.nifty.com
Replacement of Prime Minister’s Primary Care Doctor – LDP members’ rumor about possibility of tumor detection
It is good news. If what the article says is true, I wonder how many people will be happy.
I have thought for a long time that Prime
Minister is suffering from cancer. So I’m not so surprised at the news, or
rather, I am impressed by the fact that he has endured it so far. Probably his
medical team is so excellent. I have predicted that Prime Minister Abe would
disappear around between June and December of last year, but it seems that he
has been treated successfully with life-prolonging therapy.
As a trailer of Harimaya depicts “Shinzo
Abe, prepare for divine retribution,” I am sure that many Japanese feel empathy
for the phrase. I think he had better resign from office early to concentrate
on treating his disease.
Masatoshi
Takeshita
January
17, 2015
English translation of the excerpt from a
Japanese article: NEWS Post Seven – January 16, 2015 –
Replacement
of Prime Minister’s Primary Care Doctor – LDP members’ rumor about possibility
of tumor detection
“Recently, the prime minister has looked
sick. He looked tired with lowering his eyes in the New Year’s social
gathering, too.” Such voice is heard inside the LDP.
Although Prime Minister
Abe officially hails himself as “healthy,” he seems to have a serious symptom
of ulcerative colitis, a chronic disease he has.
Serious information has emerged.
A medical team led by Dr. Toshifumi Hibi,
who was the prime minister’s primary care doctor and a professor at Keio
University School of Medicine (a specialist in gastroenterological medicine at
the University Hospital)(currently a special appointment professor at Graduate School,
Kitasato University) has paid meticulous attention to the healthcare management for the prime minister. However,
infomation that around between the year-and the new-year
the medical system changed significantly ran rampant in Japan’s
political center Nagata-chou, which has spurred speculations about the prime
minister’s health. Nothing has yet been reported about it.
At a recent meeting where IDP ranking
members and those concerned at Keio University Hospital got together, “replacement
of prime minister’s primary care doctor” became the main topic of conversation.
“Immediately after the
general election, the prime minister’s primary care doctor was secretly
replaced. Dr. Hibi was replaced by a specialist in oncology as a new
personal doctor.”
Reportedly, a
replacement to Dr. Hibi is Associate Professor Hiromasa
Takaishi at Keio University Hospital Tumor Center (specialist in new outpatient
treatment for cancer). He was originally one of the medical team for
Prime Minister Abe and has engagedtogether with Dr. Hibi in treatment of
ulcerative colitis the prime minister suffers from. If he had replaced Dr.
Hibi, who served as primary care doctor for a long period of time, to sit at
the center of the team, it must have some significant meaning.
After retiring from office in the first Abe
Cabinet, Mr. Abe said at an interview as follows:
“During office, when I suddenly got sick
late at night, I asked a big favor of Dr. Hibi and Dr. Takaishi to come to the
official residence, where they devotedly cared for me.” (October 22, 2011 issue
of Shukan Gendai)
Dr. Hibi left Keio University two years ago
when he reached the mandatory retirement age. As mentioned above, he has transferred
to Kitasato University, where he serves as chief of Advanced Inflammatory Bowel
Disease Treatment Center. Prime Minister Abe is still examined at Keio Hospital
and it is not unnatural that Dr. Takaishi, who participated in treatment of the
prime minister as an assistant to Dr. Hibi for many years.
Attention is paid to the difference in
specialties between the two. Dr. Hibi held positions such as “supervisory physician
for certified by Japan Gastroenterological Endoscopy Society” and Chairman of
Japan Society for Mucosal Immunology. He is well-known as an expert in
diagnosis of ulcerative colitis and treatment research for the disease, while Dr. Takaishi is qualified as a “certified physician for
cancer treatment” and “supervisory physician for cancer medication treatment”
and he is an expert in treatment of cancer developed by
worsening condition, not treatment of colitis per se.
Furthermore, Dr.
Takaishi, an expert in “oncology,” has become a primary care doctor, at this
time, not two years ago when Dr. Hibi retired. The
participants at the meeting have drawn attention to this fact. A Diet
member attended says:
“Naturally, we talked about the possibility
of cancer detection. Reportedly, the prime minister is a great lover of meat
and sake. Fatty foods or sake should be avoided in ulcerative colitis.
According to a physicist attended, he was worried about such dietary habit,
which is undesirable, however better condition the prime minister might enjoy.”
Ulcerative colitis is an
intractable disease, which is susceptible to ulcer in the large-intestinal
mucosa, and it is known among cancer specialists that patients suffering for a
long period of time (more than 10 years) are susceptible to bowel cancer. Thirty years have already
passed since Prime Minister was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis for the first
time in his mid-twenties.
*October 30, 2015 issue of Shukan Post
Leave a Reply