Posted on 06/30/2010 7:29:51 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
AUTHOR, journalist and public intellectual Christopher Hitchens has announced he has cancer of the oesophagus and will undergo treatment.
Hitchens revealed his condition in a three-sentence statement on the website of Vanity Fair, a magazine to which he regularly contributes, and said he would have to cut short his current book tour.
“I have been advised by my physician that I must undergo a course of chemotherapy on my oesophagus. This advice seems persuasive to me. I regret having had to cancel so many engagements at such short notice,” Hitchens said.
The English-born Hitchens, 61, was in the middle of a book tour to promote his newly released memoir Hitch 22.
He visited Australia in May this year, being a star attraction at the Sydney Writers Festival.
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Hitchens, a noted enfant terrible in the literary world, is a well-known public figure who appears regularly on TV and has had his work published in myriad magazines including The New Statesman, The Atlantic, Vanity Fair, Slate & The Nation. He also published several books including his recent atheist tome “God is Not Great.”
He is well-known for his prolific consumption of alcohol and cigarettes. It was reported that the chain-smoking Hitchens gave up smoking cigarettes in 2008, though a profile piece in the Washington Post earlier this month showed that he was still indulging in the habit.
In 2003 he famously quipped that his daily intake of alcohol was enough “to kill or stun the average mule”.
Hitchens, once a darling of the left, famously underwent an ideological shift in recent years, especially after 9/11, that saw him support the Iraq war and lose the support of many of his former admirers.
Hitchens became an American citizen in 2007. He currently lives in Washington DC with his wife Carol.
LOL! To Chris Buckley, "reeking of alcohol" means "possibly drunk."
Best wishes to old Hitchens, but this absurdity about says it all for boy Buckley.
Prayers for hitch and family.
I hope when he’s ready, he can bring more attention to this cancer and treatments; He has the gift and audience to do so.
i’ve seen people who have been operated on for this type of cancer & it’s pretty traumatic. my sympathies to him & here’s hoping he’ll quit the two.
John 5:22: For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son: John 12:47 And if any man hear my words, and believe not, I judge him not: for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world.
With these thoughts in mind, I pray Christopher gets better.
What kind of person lives in a drought regions?
Its interesting that pastors of rural districts associate that passage in a message of God's blessings on the Elect and the Reprobate. In urban areas, the same passage is used in sermons that say that bad things happen to both the righteous and the wicked.
I hate to see anyone get sick but there’s a price to be paid for mocking God and this how Hitchens has made his living. I suggest Hitchens repent and ask for forgiveness before its too late. He might not be able to save his earthly life but there’s still a chance for his eternal life.
After Jerry Falwell died this sweetheart Hitchens said something to the effect that Falwell was so full of excrement that after it was removed by the undertaker his(Falwells) remains would have fit in a matchbox.
Hitchen wants nothing to do with God and, in fact, blasphemes against Him.
He will learn all about the greatness of God a moment after he dies.
May this malady bring him to the Lord.
Jesus said love your enemies.
Christopher Hitchens is my enemy in so many ways.
But Christopher is an enemy that I find easy to love.
He is an honest enemy.
The ass clown Barry Obama is an enemy I do not love.
He is a dishonest coward of the highest order, you see he claims to be my friend as well as everyone in the universe’s friend.
I pray for Christopher’s health, even though I pray to a God that he denies and ridicules.
Ouch, that is not good. Hope things change for the better all things considered.
Depends on the stage it’s caught Stage 1 and 2 have pretty high levels of survival if treated aggressively. Stage 3 and 4 almost none. The problem is that usually the first thing you notice that sends you to a doctor is trouble swallowing and by then it’s usually stage 3 or higher. With my father from diagnosis to death was a little under 6 months.
My daughters father-in-law was diagnosed 2 months ago and they took out about 1/2 his esophagus and most of his stomach. He’s losing massive amounts of weight. Whats left of the esophagus closed up on him so he couldn’t eat. They had to use a stent to open it, but expect it to close again. So the procedure will have to be repeated. He only gets palliative chemo since there is no hope. We’re all hoping it’s quick since he has less than 5% for 5 years chance of survival and it’s really 0% because of the other problems like the closing esophagus, inability to eat much (no sphincter in esophagus so if he’s laying down the food will flow back up.).
Until we hear what stage it’s at we won’t have any idea of his chance of survival is.
They left off one leading cause of the disease and that’s acid reflux. It damages the esophagus. If you have that talk to your doctor about what you can do to minimize it. My dad didn’t really drink but he had smoked for 40 years and quit for 35 but he had bad acid reflux and some ulcers. In his case they thought it was an ulcer acting up along with some problems with swollowing.
I went last week to see him speak in Cambridge, Ma. We I got to the Brattle Theater, they said his show was canceled. Someone commented on how Hitchens prided himself on not missing an engagement.
I’m guessing he’s having a “come to Nobody” moment right now...oh well I’ll pray for him anyway.
Hitch has always been an outright, forthright honest wretch.
The comments here by the ivory pure, white brick dumpers, best capture the pinched, narrow, small horizioned character that is often, and accurately attributed to social cons.
Prayers for him and his family as they face the difficult challenges ahead.
Do you not think that born again spirit filled christians get horrible terminal disease’s?
His brother, Peter, looks much happier than Christoper.
(Christoper. What a name for an atheist.)
My mother died from this cancer, it is a bad one.
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