cancer

Cancer Patient Mistaken for 'Surgical Mask Bandit,' Who Also Exists

Caity Weaver · 07/03/13 04:03PM

A Wells Fargo branch in Montebello, California did its part to make one cancer patient’s life a smidge more hellish last Friday, when tellers mistook mild-mannered lymphoma patient Joe Jaramillo for a serial robber nicknamed “the Surgical Mask Bandit," and attempted to have him arrested.

Could the U.S. Have Assassinated Hugo Chavez Using Cancer?

Hamilton Nolan · 03/08/13 10:10AM

Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez, who for many years took great glee in voicing anti-American sentiments, died this week at the age of 58, following a long battle with "an unspecified cancer in the pelvic region." Just before he died, Venezuelan vice president Nicholas Maduro ejected two U.S. diplomats from the country and vaguely charged them with infecting Chavez with cancer, saying he was "attacked with this illness."

Venezuela: Chávez Was Killed by Cancer 'Attack' by 'Enemies of the Fatherland'

Max Read · 03/06/13 08:23AM

Hours before the death of Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez, Vice President Nicolás Maduro ejected two U.S. diplomats from the country, accusing them of plotting to "destabilize" Venezuela and implying that the U.S. had infected Chávez with cancer. "We have no doubt," Maduro said in a television address, that a scientific commission would find "that commander Chávez was attacked with this illness," comparing Chávez to Palestinian Yasser Arafat, whom Maduro suggested was also poisoned. The removed diplomats, U.S. Air Force attaché Col. David Delmonaco and another, unnamed military official, had, Maduro claimed, attempted to recruit members of the Venezuelan military into an unspecified plot against Venezuela. U.S. officials scoffed at the claims, and most observers understood Maduro's accusations against "imperialists" to be a fairly standard base-rallying move that Chávez himself had frequently resorted to in the past. Conspiracy theorists, nevertheless, turned to Venezuelan lawyer and commentator Eva Golinger, who claimed in an interview with Russia Today—the media wing of the administration of longtime Chávez ally Vladimir Putin—that there's evidence that the E.U. had had infected the president with cancer. She declined to present or describe this evidence. The U.S. has indicated it will likely ask some Venezuelan diplomats to leave the country over the next few days in response. Chávez's funeral is on Friday; Venezuela will hold elections in 30 days. [Reuters | WSJ | Ultimas Noticias]

British Hospital Sued After Surgeons Remove Wrong Testicle From Cancer Patient

Taylor Berman · 02/25/13 08:32PM

Having a cancerous testicle removed is probably a stressful enough procedure; there's the actual surgery in a sensitive, important part, not to mention the life-threatening disease if the procedure fails. So odds are the 48-year-old Wiltshire man who went in for surgery last June to have a cancerous testicle removed was already worried before he awoke from surgery to discover a nightmare scenario come true: Surgeons at Salisbury District Hospital had removed the healthy testicle instead of the cancerous one. So the Wiltshire man made the appropriate decision to sue the hospital, citing concerns that the botched surgery might have ruined his ability to have children.

When My Mother and I Were Obsessed with Death

Maureen O'Connor · 05/13/12 12:45PM

For four years, my mother had a crippling fear of death. It started during her first bout with breast cancer. While recovering from her mastectomy, she insisted on driving my father to and from work, so that if he died in a car accident she'd be there to say good-bye. Nobody in our family was allowed to drive in bad weather, lest the vehicles hydroplane and we die. Christmas traditions were banned; anything that reminded my mother of the passing of time reminded her of death. She objected to my teen sleeping habits: "Just lying there all morning, like you are dead. How do I know you are not dead?" Chastised for her morbidity, my mother would snap, "You don't understand."

'I May Give Up Writing and Work as a Butler': Interview with John Derbyshire

Maureen O'Connor · 04/09/12 05:54PM

After publishing an article advising his children to avoid black people, writer John Derbyshire lost his column at uber-conservative magazine The National Review and weathered a firestorm of outrage this weekend. Nonetheless, after undergoing his regularly scheduled chemotherapy treatment for Chronic Lymphomatic Leukemia this morning, an unperturbed Derbyshire agreed to a Gawker Q&A. His only request: That we publish his answers exactly as he wrote them. We agreed, and have not edited him.

Here Is Bruce Lee Beating Up Racist Writer John Derbyshire, Who Has Cancer

Maureen O'Connor · 04/09/12 10:15AM

This weekend racist pundit John Derbyshire lost his column at the National Review for being more direct with his racism than that magazine allows. We reached out to Derbyshire and Taki's Magazine executive editor Mandolyna Theodoracopulos, who is ostensibly responsible for publishing Derb's racist article, for comment. Mandolyna, the daughter of Taki's Magazine namesake and "soi disant anti-semite" Taki Theodoracopulos, responded thusly: