“Apple Inc. Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs could be facing surgery to remove his pancreas, doctors say,” Connie Guglielmo, Rochelle Garner and Jason Gale report for Bloomberg.
“Jobs said yesterday he’s taking a five-month leave of absence after discovering that his health problems are “more complex” than he thought last week,” Guglielmo, Garner and Gale report. “Jobs had a procedure similar to a Whipple operation, which involves removing parts of the pancreas, bile duct and small intestine, after he was diagnosed with a rare type of pancreatic cancer in 2004. A potential side effect of this procedure is that the organ has to be removed to prevent pancreatic leak, and the patient has to be kept alive with insulin to regulate blood sugar, said Robert Thomas, head of surgery at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre in Melbourne.”
Guglielmo, Garner and Gale report, “‘You might have to take the rest of the pancreas out,’ said Thomas, 66, who first performed the Whipple procedure more than 20 years ago. ‘You’re on significant doses of insulin, and it’s not easy to manage. The person has the risk of severe diabetes.’ Thomas hasn’t treated Jobs and doesn’t know details of his condition… Jobs, 53, said he would remain CEO while taking a medical leave of absence until the end of June. Just last week, Jobs said his treatment should be ‘simple and straightforward.'”
“‘There’s been too little information, and the information that’s come out has been vague — creating more concern rather than conveying a sense of certainty,’ said Nell Minow, founder of the Corporate Library, a research firm specializing in corporate governance based in Portland, Maine. ‘They have achieved confusion, and a sense of being unsettled,'” Guglielmo, Garner and Gale report. “Apple is not providing information beyond the statement, said spokesman Steve Dowling. The company’s directors, including former U.S. Vice President Al Gore and Google Inc. CEO Eric Schmidt, either couldn’t be reached or declined to comment.”
“Jobs hasn’t been seen in public since October,” Guglielmo, Garner and Gale report. “‘This should not have gone on this long — it’s not healthy for the business,’ said Charles Elson, director of the University of Delaware’s John Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance. ‘The fact the issue has played around for months makes you wonder at the responsiveness of the board.'”
Full article here.
Sigh. Will somebody pleeease whip up a photoshopped “MacBook touch” or something?!