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Laden dialysis { January 21 2002 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.cnn.com/2002/HEALTH/01/21/gupta.otsc/index.htmlhttp://www.cnn.com/2002/HEALTH/01/21/gupta.otsc/index.html
January 21, 2002 Posted: 10:42 AM EST (1542 GMT)
Dr. Sanjay Gupta: Bin Laden would need help if on dialysis
(CNN)
--Speculation about the whereabouts and
health of Osama bin Laden picked up over
the weekend when Pakistan's president, Gen.
Pervez Musharraf, said he thought bin Laden
had likely died of kidney failure.
CNN medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta
spoke Monday with CNN's Paula Zahn about bin
Laden's appearance in recently released
videotapes and the possibility that the accused
terrorist leader was undergoing kidney treatment.
ZAHN: For a point of reference, I'd like for you
to analyze pictures of Osama bin Laden that
apparently were taken prior to September 11.
Describe to us the color and the tone of his skin,
and then I want you to contrast that with pictures
we know to have been taken much later.
GUPTA: You can look [at pictures from a
December 2001 video] and notice that he has
what some doctors refer to as sort of a frosting
over of his features -- his sort of grayness of
beard, his paleness of skin, very gaunt sort of
features. A lot of times people associate this with
chronic illness. Doctors can certainly look at that
and determine some clinical features.
But even more than that, it's sometimes possible
to differentiate the specific type of disease or
illness that he may be suffering from. The sort of
frosting of the appearance is something that
people a lot of times associate with chronic
kidney failure, renal failure, certainly someone
who is requiring dialysis would have that.
He's also not moving his arms. I looked at this
tape all the way through its entire length. He never
moved his left arm at all. The reason that might
be important is because people who have had a
stroke -- and certainly people are at increased risk
of stroke if they also have kidney failure -- he
may have had a stroke and therefore is not
moving his left side. And in the rest of the
videotape, he does move his right side a little bit
more than he does his left. So those are some of
the things that are sort of "of note" here in this
more recent videotape.
ZAHN: I think we need to remind the viewers
once again that the president of Pakistan talked
about [bin Laden] importing two dialysis
machines into Afghanistan. Of course, no one
other than the president of Pakistan right now is
confirming that [bin Laden] in fact needed
dialysis.
GUPTA: That's right. And again, renal dialysis --
talking about hemodialysis -- is something that
really is reserved for patients in end-stage renal
failure. That means their kidneys have just
completely shut down.
The most common cause of something like that
would be something like diabetes and
hypertension. Once that's happened, if you're
separated from your dialysis machine -- and
incidentally, dialysis machines require electricity,
they're going to require clean water, they're going
to require a sterile setting -- infection is a huge
risk with that. If you don't have all those things
and a functioning dialysis machine, it's unlikely
that you'd survive beyond several days or a week
at the most.
ZAHN: If he had all these things you're talking
about to keep the dialysis machine running, how
much help does he need around him to administer
the treatment?
GUPTA: You certainly need someone who really
knows how to run that dialysis machine. You
have to have someone who's actually assessing
his blood, Osama bin Laden's blood, to see what
particular dialysate he would need, and to be able
to change his dialysate as needed. So you'd need a
kidney specialist, a technician -- quite a few
people around him.
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