Former President Joaquín Balaguer died a day before being discharged from the capital after the medical team treating him managed to stop massive bleeding in his stomach, renowned gastroenterologist Fernando Contreras has revealed. Abreu Clinic.
The most influential politician of the last 50 years in the Dominican Republic died in the early hours of Sunday, July 14, 2002, and on Saturday preparations were being made for the 13th to send him home on Monday, according to Dr. Contreras . The 15th of the month.
Galen explained that he had always wondered how the nonagenarian politician would die, but he never imagined that years later it would be his turn to become an important figure in his final days.
In an interview with Héctor Herrera Cabral on the D’AGENDA program, which airs every Sunday on Telesistema channel 11 and TV Quisqueya in the United States, the gastrointestinal specialist recalled that when he was growing up For a generation, he considered the presidential republic synonymous with Joaquín Balaguer.
He recalled that the last thing he did was develop a huge ulcer in his stomach, and they could never tell if it was malignant, and while the biopsy showed it was benign, they were very superficial (research). The incident that brought him to the clinic was a bleed, and although they were able to stop it, he bleeds again a second time.
“Because they’re one of those things that when you’re that old and have so many medical problems, we have to decide whether to anticoagulate him because he’s had so many neurological events,” the doctor explained.
He added, “When we got the bleeding under control we started him on anticoagulation again and he came back bleeding and in the second incident he vomited blood and we had to intubate him and miraculously Yes, when he was 96 years old, we were able to extubate him.” “
“The strange thing is that he died while his condition was stable, that is, he died on Sunday morning. On Saturday night we had a meeting in the same room with him. I think Pedro Barber Dr. Ro Paredes was there, along with others. The plan was to go to his house on Sunday morning and get everything ready because we were going to have him discharged from the hospital on Monday, but the Lord’s plan decided to send him that day to find a better home he.
The leak limited him mentally, but he responded immediately when Ippolito, Cardinal or Lionel visited him.
Dr. Fernando Contreras, who helped former President Joaquín Balaguer in his final days, said he was happy to see him in perfect physical and mental condition, but when he provided medical At the time of nursing care, his condition had deteriorated significantly.
“He had had a stroke before, he was not far away from the bleeding, and in fact, his physical and mental abilities at that time were very limited; “I want to tell you, there were only three people who went to visit him, and he responded almost immediately , they were the then President of the Republic Hipolito Mejía, Cardinal Nicolás de Jesus López Rodríguez and former President Lionel Fernández,” revealed the famous source .Gastroenterologist.
He added, “That was his most lucid moment. “He was in such bad shape that when he was sitting he wanted to stand and when he was lying down he wanted to sit. “
“I can’t say that I had a conversation with him as much as I would have liked to have, to get some information from that privileged brain, from a life that was so controversial for so many people, but, I would say, for everyone It’s special because whether it’s one of their political flags or not, there’s light and shadow,” Dr. Contreras said.
He said the country had much to thank former President Joaquín Balaguer for, even though the sun couldn’t put its finger on the shadow of his administration.
Gastroenterologist says he has never met a nobler, more grateful patient in his life than Freddy Beras Goico
Freddy Beras Goico, another influential figure in the country’s public life and a patient of Dr. Fernando Contreras, said, Dr. Fernando Contreras lives a very organized life. In addition to being grateful for life, he also treats his illness with a great sense of nobility. and his family.
“The fact is that Freddie lived a very organized life and maybe his only risk factor was that he was always overweight, I think he smoked once but he doesn’t smoke anymore, he hardly drank and before he sought medical attention he It’s not my patient’s problem, but unfortunately the tumor he had was not avoidable or detectable early,” Galen said.
He added, “I would like to take this opportunity to say that I never imagined that his human qualities were so high that I can tell you that I believe I have never met a patient who had a nobler view of life, of Nursing is a more grateful person.” , for his family, “He gave me more satisfaction than Freddy Beras Goico did in the five years I treated him. “
The doctor said he could understand the appreciation and value people had for Freddy when he was his patient because he was a noble, broad-minded man.
He says pancreatic and gallbladder cancers are the deadliest cancers and define miracle cure for hepatitis C
Gastroenterologist Fernando Contreras said the most aggressive cancerous tumors are pancreatic and vesicular cancers, but warned that without early detection, the liver, esophagus, stomach and colon cancer also pose risks.
“There are a couple of problems with pancreatic cancer. It’s an extremely vascular organ that’s very deep in the abdominal cavity. There are two types. One is cystic, which is usually not very aggressive. It has precancerous lesions that you can find. It and given that with follow-up, these patients almost never die, but pancreatic cancer is the most common, generally speaking, very advanced tumors are almost always detected based on their location, and it’s very aggressive,” he explain.
Contreras clarified that even for patients who are candidates for surgery, “when we operate on them, as people say, it’s thought that it’s not irrigated, but the fact is, when we analyze that segment, it’s almost always It’s irrigated.”
“So the most you can do in this situation is prolong life, but unfortunately treatment, radiation and chemotherapy are still very effective today, albeit a little less effective than they were a few years ago,” he noted.
However, Fernando Contreras noted that most inoperable cancer patients survive less than a year, whereas when they can be operated on and receive adequate treatment, they can survive up to five years.
When it comes to gallbladder cancer, a leading gastroenterologist says that while the condition is very rare, the reality is that these are the kinds of news that neither patients nor doctors want to receive.
“I always say this is the cancer you don’t want to get, I’m more afraid of gallbladder cancer than pancreatic cancer, luckily it’s not that common, or I would say it’s rare and there’s almost no way to diagnose it early enough,” the medical expert warned.
One of the conditions that can lead to gallbladder cancer is if a patient has polyps in that organ, Contreras said. Although polyps are benign in most cases, everyone who receives this diagnosis should have their size checked every six months. Have follow-up visits, or annually.
“So if the polyp grows to a centimeter, drastic measures have to be taken and the gallbladder is removed because it is an adenoma, which is a precancerous condition and when it grows to a centimeter, the likelihood of developing cancer is much higher .” explained.
It’s a cancer no one wants to have, he insists, because colon cancer can still be detected and is potentially curable, but just like pancreatic cancer can never be detected in time, gallbladder cancer is similar.
When it comes to hepatitis C, abdominal disease experts say the days when one in three cirrhosis patients died from the viral disease are a thing of the past.
“As for hepatitis C, that’s the cuckoo of viral hepatitis because most people who are infected are not cured, we don’t have enough treatments and almost a third of people die, it’s cirrhosis of the liver caused by this virus The consequences of that, today we have not one, but three miracle drugs, because we can no longer say a word about taking a chronic disease that almost no one can cure, and today it is cured,” he revealed road.
He added, “One pill a day for eight to 12 weeks, depending on the drug we use, we can give it to anyone with hepatitis C, even if they have advanced disease, and in fact more than 99 percent of The patients all had hepatitis C.” was cured, and thanks to this huge advance, almost no one will die from hepatitis C today. “
Water Quality, Electrical Services and Year-End Parties
In a separate order, the renowned doctor called on the public to take precautionary measures over the quality of water for human consumption and household use following last weekend’s torrential downpours.
He recommended boiling it and chlorinating it. The same caution must be taken with food, especially those that must be air-conditioned, as the same phenomenon can cause electrical service to be disrupted for several hours, and in many cases, it can cause more damage or even outage a few days.
Dr. Contreras also called for avoiding excessive intake of alcoholic beverages and typical foods of the season during the Christmas and New Year holidays.