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The Emperor Fabulous
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Apolyton's Resident Actor-in-Training
Aug 1999
time: 00:18
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quote:
VIENNA, Austria -- Dioxin poisoning caused the disfiguring illness afflicting Ukraine opposition presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko, doctors at an Austrian hospital have said.
Doctors told a news conference Saturday they suspect a "third party" administered the poison, possibly by putting it in Yushchenko's soup.
Dr. Michael Zimpfer, director of the private Rudolphinerhaus clinic in Vienna, said Yushchenko was now in satisfactory condition and that dioxin levels in his liver have returned to normal.
Dr. Nikolai Korpan added that no functional damage would remain and that Yushchenko was "fully capable of working," The Associated Press reported.
Blood and skin tests conducted over the past 24 hours in Austria and other European clinics provided the evidence of poisoning, Zimpfer said.
"There is no doubt about the fact that Mr. Yushchenko's disease has been caused by a case of poisoning by dioxin," Zimpfer said.
"What we can say at this point is that this concentration constitutes an amount which is 1,000 times above the normal levels that you would find in blood or tissue."
Dioxin -- one of the agents found in Agent Orange -- is formed as a by-product from industrial processes such as waste incineration, chemical and pesticide manufacturing and pulp and paper bleaching, AP reported.
Exposure to the toxin can lead to chloracne -- a type of adult acne that Zimpfer has said can take a long time to clear, AP said.
Zimpfer said it was not possible for the doctors to determine at this point whether the poisoning was deliberate.
"The circumstances relating to the case in criminal investigation, I would once again point out, this does not fall within our purview.
"We have made a final diagnosis as well as an additional diagnosis, that we suspect a cause triggered by a third party. So there is suspicion of third party involvement," Zimpfer said.
"We can state that there has been an oral intake," he said, adding that it was not known if it was from eating or drinking.
"It would be quite easy to administer this amount in a soup that contains cream, and I am saying cream because of the issue of fat solubility."
The illness caused bloating and pockmarks to Yushchenko's face, prompting allegations from the candidate and others that Ukraine authorities poisoned him ahead of last month's controversial election -- an allegation they have denied.
Arriving at the hospital Saturday, Yushchenko's wife, Kateryna Chumachenko, said she was convinced from the start that her husband was poisoned.
"I knew from the very beginning he was poisoned," AP quoted her as saying.
"We had received threats before it happened, and we continued to receive threats because I think there are many people who consider my husband and the changes he would bring to Ukraine a threat to them personally." (Wife 'tasted medicine')
Yushchenko faces Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych on December 26 in a repeat of last month's vote. Yanukovych was declared the official winner, but the Supreme Court threw out the results because of irregularities.
The 50-year-old opposition leader fell ill in September, a day after attending a reception and dinner with the leadership of the Ukrainian security services.
He went to the Austrian hospital for treatment five days later. Aides said if he had remained in Ukraine he could have died.
It is not believed that anybody else who attended the event became sick. Yushchenko consumed mostly liquids at the event.
In Kiev Saturday, Yushchenko supporters expressed little surprise over the doctors' report.
At the capital's main Independence Square -- where hundreds of thousands protested against the election results for two weeks -- backers who were still camped out passed the news by word of mouth.
"Everybody knew he was poisoned so we didn't really need official tests," AP quoted Anatoly Klotchyk, 19, as saying.
Ihor Ostash, a legislator from Yushchenko's Our Ukraine party, said the Austrian doctors only confirmed what opposition supporters already believed -- that their candidate was the victim of an assassination attempt.
Yanukovych's former representative on the Central Election Commission, Stepan Havrysh, questioned the doctors' diagnosis, saying that while he felt sorry for Yushchenko, "I'm afraid, two weeks before the vote, it's all political," AP reported.
Physicians began running new tests Friday evening, when Yushchenko was admitted for a third time to the clinic, Zimpfer said.
"We started last night to do the entire imaging, including nuclear medicine, to look at the function of the organs, skeletal system and to see what kind of damage might be hiding," AP quoted him as saying.
Yushchenko arrived at the hospital in a convoy of three cars. He was accompanied by his wife and surrounded by bodyguards.
"Everything is going well. I plan to live for a long time and I plan to live happily. I am getting better health every day," AP quoted Yushchenko as saying.
Yushchenko's chief of staff, Oleh Rybachuk, told PBS' "NewsHour with Jim Lehrer" the candidate has fully recovered from his unidentified ailment but "needs a certain rest and he needs to take care of this effect on his face, which they call residual," AP reported.
"Internally there are no more damages," Rybachuk said.
Rybachuk also said Yushchenko was fortunate to receive early treatment in Vienna.
"He was very lucky that he was brought to Vienna because doctors said if he would stay another 24 hours in Ukraine, it could be a 'final solution,"' he said in comments broadcast Friday.
Yushchenko suffered from a series of symptoms, including back pain, acute pancreatitis and nerve paralysis on the left side of his face.
One of the doctors at Saturday's news conference said the changes in Yushchenko's face will remain for a long time. More treatment will be needed to determine whether his face can be restored to the way it had been.
Yushchenko had long been known for his good looks.
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It becomes clearer and clearer...
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The Mad Monk
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of Ice Cream
Mar 2000
time: 23:18
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It's official:
quote:
Doctor: Yushchenko Poisoned With Dioxin
Email this Story
Dec 11, 6:59 PM (ET)
By SUSANNA LOOF
(AP) The picture combo shows Viktor Yushchenko in file photos dated March 28, 2002, left, and Dec. 6, 2004, right. The Ukrainian opposition leader and presidential candidate's mysterious illness that scared his face was caused by dioxin poisoning, doctors said Saturday Dec. 11, 2004, in Vienna, Austria. (AP Photo/Viktor Pobedinsky/Efrem Lukatsky)
VIENNA, Austria (AP) - Ukrainian presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko was poisoned with dioxin, doctors said Saturday, adding that the highly toxic chemical could have been put in the opposition leader's soup, producing the severe disfigurement and partial paralysis of his face.
Yushchenko was in satisfactory condition and was expected to be released from Vienna's private Rudolfinerhaus clinic Sunday or Monday to return to the campaign trail in Ukraine, said hospital director Dr. Michael Zimpfer.
Yushchenko, who faces Viktor Yanukovych in a rerun of a disputed presidential runoff on Dec. 26, has claimed that he was poisoned by Ukrainian authorities, who deny the charges. His supporters at home expressed little surprise over the doctors' conclusion.
"Everybody knew he was poisoned so we didn't really need official tests," said Anatoly Klotchyk, 19, standing in the sleet outside his tent near Kiev's Independence Square, where supporters have conducted a blockaded of government buildings since the dispute flared, grabbing international attention after the runoff last month.
Campaigners for his opponent, Viktor Yanukovych, meanwhile, again rejected suggestions that the prime minister was involved in the poisoning.
There is "no logic in such an accusation," said Taras Chornovyl, Yanukovych's campaign manager.
Yanukovych was declared the winner of the Nov. 21 presidential runoff, but the results were annulled by the Ukrainian Supreme Court, which cited massive fraud and ordered a new vote.
Yushchenko fell ill in early September and had been treated at the Vienna clinic twice before. But it was the tests run since he checked in Friday night that provided conclusive evidence of the poisoning, Zimpfer said.
The 50-year-old politician also has suffered from back pain and acute pancreatitis.
"There is no doubt about the fact that Mr. Yushchenko's disease - especially following the results of the blood work - has been caused by a case of poisoning by dioxin," Zimpfer said.
"We suspect involvement of an external party, but we cannot answer as to who cooked what or who was with him while he ate," Zimpfer said, adding that tests showed the dioxin was taken orally.
Zimpfer said Yushchenko's blood and tissue registered concentrations of dioxin - one of the most toxic chemicals - that were 1,000 times above normal levels.
"It would be quite easy to administer this amount in a soup," Zimpfer said.
The substance containing the dioxin would most likely have been consumed the day Yushchenko fell ill, as dioxin is rapidly absorbed, Zimpfer said.
"This substance led to quite a significant increase in the (dioxin) level within just a few hours and this intake then led to the quite devastating effects that we have seen," he said. "The substance started to wreak havoc in the body."
A parliamentary commission that investigated Yushchenko's mysterious illness in October said he complained of pains after meeting with Ihor Smeshko, the head of Ukraine's Secret Service, but it lists other places he ate or drank that day. Smeshko promised the secret service would investigate.
The massive quantities of dioxin in Yushchenko's system caused chloracne, a type of adult acne produced by exposure to toxic chemicals that left his once-handsome face badly disfigured, hospital dermatologist Hubert Pehmberger told The Associated Press.
Chloracne can take up to two to three years to heal, but Dr. Nikolai Korpan, the physician who oversaw the Ukrainian politician's treatment, said Yushchenko is "fully capable of working."
Unlike earlier blood tests, the latest were sent to a laboratory in Amsterdam that uses a new analysis method that could test it for dioxin, Korpan said.
When first seen by the Austrian doctors Sept. 10, Yushchenko was in a critical stage but was "not on the verge of dying," Zimpfer said.
"If this dose had been higher, it may have caused death," he said.
Dioxin - a contaminant found in Agent Orange - is a byproduct of industrial processes such as waste incineration and chemical and pesticide manufacturing.
It is a normal contaminant in many foods, but a single high dose, usually in food, can trigger illness, London-based toxicologist John Henry said last month.
"We've never had a case like this - a known case of large, severe dioxin poisoning," Henry said, leaving it unclear whether the dosage of dioxin administered to Yushchenko was meant only to make him ill or to kill him.
Tension in Ukraine's political crisis has abated with parliament's adoption of the electoral changes aimed at preventing fraud in return for handing over some presidential powers to the parliament.
Yushchenko wants to move his former Soviet republic closer to the West politically and is largely backed by the Ukrainian-speakers who want to end what they say has been mass corruption during the previous decade. The pro-Kremlin Yanukovych, who had the backing of outgoing President Leonid Kuchma and Russian leader Vladimir Putin, draws his strength from the Russian-speaking, industrial east, which accounts for one-sixth of Ukraine's population of 48 million.
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http://apnews.myway.com/article/20041211/D86TOJHO0.html
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Zevico
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Melbourne
Apr 2002
time: 15:18
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Ted: What is the name of this one, then? PLEASE TELL ME DAMNIT....PLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAASE
Ah, the rampant speculation of the boards. Serb one way, everyone else the other. It's like a tug of war: the giant versus the masses. But poisoning does seem a bit questionable...why would they poison him in a non-fatal manner? As a warning? It is a mixed blessing in terms of support, after all many people would be sympathetic towards him if he was poisoned, despite his lack of "pretty-boyishness".
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Dr Strangelove
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Could this not have been just as easily done by a Ukranian thug instead of a Russian thug? Ukraine is fairly industrial. I'm sure they have some dioxan of their own kicking around somewhere. In fact I'm willing to bet that they were hopeing that this would be passed off as pollution poisoning just in case someone had exumed him sometime after a successful poisoning.
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Serb
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Siberia, Communist party of Apolyton
Nov 2001
time: 11:18
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quote:
Originally posted by Harry Tuttle
Well well. So which wonderful ex-soviet did this to the man?
Serb, any thoughts on this one? |
Himself.
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Serb
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Siberia, Communist party of Apolyton
Nov 2001
time: 11:18
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quote:
Originally posted by Boris Godunov
Come on, you know he'll just dismiss it as a lie and that the doctors are in cahoots with--or worse, being controlled by--the Western Boogeymen who are out to conquer the Ukraine. |
You aren't hopeless.
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Serb
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Siberia, Communist party of Apolyton
Nov 2001
time: 11:18
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quote:
Originally posted by molly bloom
Or because they're incompetent, or the dosage wasn't enough?
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Then they are surelly not from secret services.
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Serb
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Siberia, Communist party of Apolyton
Nov 2001
time: 11:18
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quote:
Originally posted by Dr Strangelove
Could this not have been just as easily done by a Ukranian thug instead of a Russian thug? Ukraine is fairly industrial. I'm sure they have some dioxan of their own kicking around somewhere. In fact I'm willing to bet that they were hopeing that this would be passed off as pollution poisoning just in case someone had exumed him sometime after a successful poisoning. |
And what kind of concentration needed to actually kill somebody? I bet it should be pretty big quantiny and there is no any guaranty of death. Why bothering with that crap? Why not to use any of hundreds of known poisons that are 100% lethal and require only a small dosage to kill the victum?
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Dr Strangelove
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As I said, a death from dioxan could be blamed on pollution. I beleive that the lethal dose is known. Maybe he didn't drink all of his soup.
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Serb
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Siberia, Communist party of Apolyton
Nov 2001
time: 11:18
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quote:
Originally posted by Dr Strangelove
As I said, a death from dioxan could be blamed on pollution. I beleive that the lethal dose is known. Maybe he didn't drink all of his soup. |
Just what kind of death? A death from a cancer?
Why bothering with that?
edited: I mean a death from pollution should be a slow death, while victim still could be active somehow, at least will be able to blame suspected murders. Why bothering whith that?
Last edited by Serb on 13-12-2004 at 00:18
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Serb
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Siberia, Communist party of Apolyton
Nov 2001
time: 11:18
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quote:
Originally posted by Combat Ingrid
Some toxicity data for dioxin can be found here .
I'm not sure if it works for dioxin, but for many other toxic substances, the timing of the poisoning events can be determined by cutting short sections of the hair and measuring the concentrations of the substance in the hair.
That way, one can also determine whether there was a single dose or several doses spread out over a period of time.
This will obviously only work if the substance is deposited in the hair and stays there. |
So, isn't it suspicious that untill now, Dr. Zimpfer twice said they've found nothing strange in samples of Yushenko's blood, urine and HAIR, but he says that they've found dioxine now?
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Serb
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Siberia, Communist party of Apolyton
Nov 2001
time: 11:18
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Amsterdam?
Thanks, now I get it. I guess I know what kind of docs made this diagnosis.
- Wow!!! We have some kind of black sh!t here!
- Coool. Can we smoke it?
- Sure, why not?
- Cough...cough...cough... damn, what kind kind of suff is that? It's pretty toxic if you ask me.
- Yeah...it's like f*cking dyo..diyo..dioksin...wow!!! I think I can fly!!!
- Have you seen this pink elefant over there?...cough...cough...
- Nope, only green camels...
- Too bad, it was dancing...cough...cough
- Look! They are coming back!
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11-12-2004 23:25
Yeah, deductive reasoning can do that to your face. 
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