Apple CEO Jobs received liver transplant

[DainBramaged]

Source: MSNBC

Steve Jobs, the chief executive of Apple Inc., received a liver transplant about two months ago but is expected to return to work later this month, CNBC reported on Saturday.

Jobs, a pancreatic cancer survivor, stepped away from managing day-to-day operations for the consumer electronics giant about six months ago, citing unspecified health issues.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Jobs, 54, recieved the transplant in Tennessee. CNBC confirmed that Jobs' jet flew from San Jose to Memphis in late March.

The Wall Street Journal quoted an unidentified source as saying Jobs may return to work part-time at first. The source said Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook may continue to manage daily operations of the company when Jobs initially returns.

Some Apple directors knew about the surgery and were briefed weekly by Job's doctor, the Wall Street Journal reported.



Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31456626/ns/business-us_business/

---

I hope he recovers fully.

[vow66]

1. Steve Jobs Had Liver Transplant

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x457649

[Confusious]

2. He got that fast

I wonder who he bumped on the list

[JI7]

3. it could have been a relative or someone else he knew

[Confusious]

7. um

He got a liver. A person has 1 liver.

[MADem]

10. Do you think before YOU write? Ever hear of the common "living transplant" prcocedure?

You owe the person you snarked an apology.

Here, read and learn, the full link is downthread:

July 24, 2006 (Boston) -- People considering sharing their liver with an ailing relative or friend can worry a bit less, say doctors who found that living donor liver-transplantation is relatively safe.

The largest North American study to date to look at how people who donate part of their livers fare after the procedure shows almost two in three (62%) suffer no complications, reports R. Mark Ghobrial, MD, professor of surgery at UCLA.

And the vast majority of complications that do occur are treatable, he says.....

[Confusious]

11. Yes I was snarky

Yes I apologize

Your article is from 2006. Sounds like an experimental procedure to me.

On Edit: Not so experimental, but Rare.

[MADem]

12. They've been doing it since the late eighties

They used to just snip off the end of an adult liver for kids. Then, they realized these things could GROW, so they started dividing dead ones in half, and taking chunks of live ones for adult to adult transplants. You can get the procedure in most parts of the country now.

It's still a new(er) procedure for adults, but most transplant centers in USA are doing it. A few of them (not all inclusive by any stretch):


Mayo Clinics NY and AZ
http://www.mayoclinic.org/liver-transplant/livingdonorlivertransplant.html

U of MD Med
http://www.umm.edu/transplant/living_liver_donor.htm

Colorado:
http://www.uch.edu/conditions/transplant-services/liver-transplant/living-liver-donation/index.aspx

California
http://www.surgery.usc.edu/divisions/hep/livedonorlivertransplant.html

[pnwmom]

4. They give priority to the sickest people.

So this isn't a good sign.

[Confusious]

8. Didn't think about that

I was on a TV show a couple years ago. Remembered it when I read your post.

[Joe Bacon]

43. Not with my dad.

My dad died from liver cancer. Insurance company beancounter wouldn't lift a finger to help us.

[RandomKoolzip]

49. No, they give priority to the RICHEST sick people.

My dad, who was quite poor, died while waiting for a transplant in 1993.

[KT2000]

5. Not saying he did this

but there is a black market for organs that is available to the wealthy of the world.
It runs around 1 million dollars.
Free marketers are trying to make it a cash business
(Ethics in Organ Transplantation by Nirmala Rao Khadpekar)

[SeattleGirl]

6. True dat, but a transplant can also be directed to a specific person,

if I recall correctly.

[MADem]

9. Maybe it was a "living transplant" where someone gives him a chunk of theirs.

http://www.webmd.com/digestive-disorders/news/20060724/donating-part-of-liver-relatively-safe

July 24, 2006 (Boston) -- People considering sharing their liver with an ailing relative or friend can worry a bit less, say doctors who found that living donor liver-transplantation is relatively safe.

The largest North American study to date to look at how people who donate part of their livers fare after the procedure shows almost two in three (62%) suffer no complications, reports R. Mark Ghobrial, MD, professor of surgery at UCLA.

And the vast majority of complications that do occur are treatable, he says.

In the study, 2% of donors had life-threatening, lasting disabilities. One died of medical complications 21 days after the procedure.

The research was presented here at World Transplant Congress 2006.

[CreekDog]

32. he went to another state with a shorter waiting list

i don't blame him for trying.

[bitchkitty]

37. Not necessarily - a lot depends on

who has the best tissue match.

[moggie]

13. Now all the Apple fanboys will want one n/t

[MilesColtrane]

14. Veno-occlusive disease caused by high doses of chemotherapy?

If that's not the case, maybe he had a tumor that was so invasive into his liver, they just figured they'd take his out and put a new one in.

(I'm not a doctor, but I do play one on the internet.)

[Bombero1956]

15. any way you look at it

There's one thing he didn't have to worry about when he walked in and that was how he was going to afford the operation and the post surgical care. That goes for Bill Gates too. This goes to the heart (no pun intended) of the dual system of health care in this country, the rich and well connected get the best of care without consequence of cost and the rest of us who are one medical ailment away from the poor house. I dare say that what he made yesterday with the release of the new IPhone more that paid for everything.

[DainBramaged]

16. I find it strange the amount of animosity towards Jobs in this thread

Sure, the guy is wealthy beyond belief, but the man IS a genius (and EARNED his fortune), he is one of the few people in these bridged centuries to bring joy and happiness to hundreds of millions through innovative products, and people here begrudge him a liver transplant to survive?

DU is just getting more screwed by the day.

[onehandle]

17. Agreed. nt

[WriteDown]

19. Apparently, he is an elite fatcat and...

deserves to be ridiculed. Unless you have a iphone or ipod touch. Then he is saint. :shrug:

[DainBramaged]

22. DU loves to ridicule the successful, even when they contribute much to society

The purer than thou attitude here is really starting to annoy me.

[gabby garcia]

36. I've contributed to society as best I can.

I have little but what I have I make sure to share with my fellow humans be it food, a few $ or the art I make. I can guarantee if I needed a new liver right now I would NOT be able to get one or ever afford to have a surgeon place a piece of a willing donors liver in my body. I pretty much accept the fact that any major illness for me will be a death sentence. And I know I'm not the only one. I imagine it would be hard not to feel a little bitter knowing what you contribute to society means nothing at all in our society compared to what a rich person contributes.

[DainBramaged]

41. Hopelessness and bitterness. Life is what you make of it

I am truly sorry for those of you who feel that way. Every day I open my eyes I consider it a gift. But I'm through with this thread. DU is hopeless. And for those of you who hate the man because he can afford to live, you need to examine your hearts, because that blackness is hard to overcome.

[gabby garcia]

45. who said anything about hate?

life is not about one emotion, one individual or one group but a collage of all.
to rail against an unfair system is often the only way to change it.

gg

[Iowa]

20. Nah, I have no horse in this race, but this is goofy...

"...people here begrudge him a liver transplant to survive..."

This type of drama and faux outrage is more annoying than anything in this thread. Nobody here is "begrudging him a liver transplant to survive". A few expressed concern about a health care system that denies life-saving care to those who can't afford it. They aren't saying that Jobs shouldn't get the care he needs - they're saying everyone should receive decent care (including Jobs).

"...he is one of the few people in these bridged centuries to bring joy and happiness to hundreds of millions through innovative products..."

Let's not overstate it. Jobs is a guy who sells expensive gadgets that people are willing to pay too much money for - not that there's anything wrong with that.

"...the man... EARNED his fortune..."

Nobody "earns" billions of dollars. Nobody. We happen to live in a system that allows a few to hoard far more resources than they're worth.

"DU is just getting more screwed by the day."

Calm down and nix the histrionics. You've whipped yourself into a frenzy about nothing.

[DainBramaged]

21. Thanks for the lecture...................

I sometimes drift back in time to a line the Slim Jim guy used to say at the end of his commercials.........

[TommyO]

23. Paying too much money

If there's nothing wrong with it, why bring it up?

People make value judgements every day on their purchases. Did I spend more on a Mac Pro than I would on another Windows-based PC? Actually, no - a comparably equipped Dell machine with eight cores was more expensive than my Mac Pro, and didn't have the kick-ass aluminum enclosure and damned-near silent operation that the Mac Pro has.

Can you get a cheap PC? Sure, but you frequently get what you pay for.

[merwin]

26. It's more of a bitterness that he can get it done relatively easily

and without having to fight insurance companies and waiting lists. Nothing against the man himself.

[DainBramaged]

27. There is way too much bitterness here, way too much

It doesn't behoove us to be such scumbags towards others. Oh wait, we're showing our true selves, aren't we?


I would have given a piece of my liver if I had been a match to save him, or anyone else for that matter. You don't need a complete liver. The bitterness these people show tells more about them than they realize.

[merwin]

29. There is a lot to be bitter about when medical bills bankrupt

more and more people (myself included). One major surgical visit to the hospital and most of us are done for financially.

[DainBramaged]

31. Direct it at YOUR Congress, not at ONE individual

Being pissed that Steve Jobs is alive is sure going to solve our health care problems.

Like I have said, jealous and bitter sure makes us look more and more like the opposition.

[merwin]

38. I completely agree, which is why I haven't made any of those comments.

I was just pointing out how it could easily be taken.

I have to admit, it was one of the first things that came to mind, as someone who has spent tens of thousands of dollars out of pocket in the last few years on out of pocket health care costs and ended up in bankruptcy due to those costs and losing my job immediately after.

It's hard not to be bitter when you go through something like that, root for someone who promises to fix the medical system and does a complete 180 on the promise. However, the bitterness should be directed at congresscritters and Obama himself, not Steve Jobs.

[conspirator]

28. No one has to worship anyone else just because they are geniuses or rich you know

if they haven't contributed to our happiness directly, we shouldn't hate them but we shouldn't give a fuck about them either.
The celebrity culture is for losers. Life should be where you are.

[DainBramaged]

30. (shakes head) jealous and bitter, the mantra of DU

[conspirator]

39. I understand you have a mac. I have a PC and I don't suck up to bill gates nt

[DainBramaged]

40. God you are a fool. You have no clue who I am or what I own.

It must suck to hate a man who has wealth and simply wants to live. Do you go out and curse at little children in the morning because they are young?

[conspirator]

42. Dude I don't hate anybody. If a homeless man needed a liver transplant nobody would talk about it

Just because he doesn't have millions in the bank.
If you know Jobs personally it's OK to be concerned. But if he doesn't know you exist, why should you cheer for him?

[MicaelS]

44. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

Has an endowment of 35 billion dollars. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_and_Melinda_Gates_Foundation

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is the largest transparently operated private foundation in the world, founded by Bill and Melinda Gates. The primary aims of the foundation are, globally, to enhance healthcare and reduce extreme poverty, and in America, to expand educational opportunities and access to information technology. It has an endowment of US$35.1 billion as of October 1, 2008. The scale of the foundation and the way it seeks to apply business techniques to giving makes it one of the leaders in the philanthrocapitalism revolution in global philanthropy. In 2007 its founders were ranked as the second most generous philanthropists in America.

Say what you want about Microsoft and it's practices, Gates is actively trying to make the world a better place. What has Jobs done with HIS billions for charity? Next to nothing.

http://money.cnn.com/2008/03/02/news/companies/elkind_jobs.fortune/index4.htm

Last year the founder of the Stanford Social Innovation Review called Apple one of "America's Least Philanthropic Companies." Jobs had terminated all of Apple's long-standing corporate philanthropy programs within weeks after returning to Apple in 1997, citing the need to cut costs until profitability rebounded. But the programs have never been restored.

Unlike Bill Gates - the tech world's other towering figure - Jobs has not shown much inclination to hand over the reins of his company to create a different kind of personal legacy. While his wife is deeply involved in an array of charitable projects, Jobs' only serious foray into personal philanthropy was short-lived. In January 1987, after launching Next, he also, without fanfare or public notice, incorporated the Steven P. Jobs Foundation. "He was very interested in food and health issues and vegetarianism," recalls Mark Vermilion, the community affairs executive Jobs hired to run it. Vermilion persuaded Jobs to focus on "social entrepreneurship" instead. But the Jobs foundation never did much of anything, besides hiring famed graphic designer Paul Rand to design its logo. (Explains Vermilion: "He wanted a logo worthy of his expectations.") Jobs shut down the foundation after less than 15 months.

So Jobs is making "innovative products" while Gates is trying to "enhance healthcare and reduce extreme poverty". Which one has shown more progressive ideals? Gates.

Not a bit screwy.

[OhioChick]

46. Yeah.....Gates is an angel...

Dark cloud over good works of Gates Foundation

Ebocha, Nigeria — Justice Eta, 14 months old, held out his tiny thumb.

An ink spot certified that he had been immunized against polio and measles, thanks to a vaccination drive supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

But polio is not the only threat Justice faces. Almost since birth, he has had respiratory trouble. His neighbors call it "the cough." People blame fumes and soot spewing from flames that tower 300 feet into the air over a nearby oil plant. It is owned by the Italian petroleum giant Eni, whose investors include the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Justice squirmed in his mother's arms. His face was beaded with sweat caused either by illness or by heat from the flames that illuminate Ebocha day and night. Ebocha means "city of lights."

The makeshift clinic at a church where Justice Eta was vaccinated and the flares spewing over Ebocha represent a head-on conflict for the Gates Foundation. In a contradiction between its grants and its endowment holdings, a Times investigation has found, the foundation reaps vast financial gains every year from investments that contravene its good works.

In Ebocha, where Justice lives, Dr. Elekwachi Okey, a local physician, says hundreds of flares at oil plants in the Niger Delta have caused an epidemic of bronchitis in adults, and asthma and blurred vision in children. No definitive studies have documented the health effects, but many of the 250 toxic chemicals in the fumes and soot have long been linked to respiratory disease and cancer.

"We're all smokers here," Okey said, "but not with cigarettes."

The oil plants in the region surrounding Ebocha find it cheaper to burn nearly 1 billion cubic feet of gas each day and contribute to global warming than to sell it. They deny the flaring causes sickness. Under pressure from activists, however, Nigeria's high court set a deadline to end flaring by May 2007. The gases would be injected back underground, or trucked and piped out for sale. But authorities expect the flares to burn for years beyond the deadline.

The Gates Foundation has poured $218 million into polio and measles immunization and research worldwide, including in the Niger Delta. At the same time that the foundation is funding inoculations to protect health, The Times found, it has invested $423 million in Eni, Royal Dutch Shell, Exxon Mobil Corp., Chevron Corp. and Total of France — the companies responsible for most of the flares blanketing the delta with pollution, beyond anything permitted in the United States or Europe.

Indeed, local leaders blame oil development for fostering some of the very afflictions that the foundation combats.

Oil workers, for example, and soldiers protecting them are a magnet for prostitution, contributing to a surge in HIV and teenage pregnancy, both targets in the Gates Foundation's efforts to ease the ills of society, especially among the poor. Oil bore holes fill with stagnant water, which is ideal for mosquitoes that spread malaria, one of the diseases the foundation is fighting.

Investigators for Dr. Nonyenim Solomon Enyidah, health commissioner for Rivers State, where Ebocha is located, cite an oil spill clogging rivers as a cause of cholera, another scourge the foundation is battling. The rivers, Enyidah said, "became breeding grounds for all kinds of waterborne diseases."

The bright, sooty gas flares — which contain toxic byproducts such as benzene, mercury and chromium — lower immunity, Enyidah said, and make children such as Justice Eta more susceptible to polio and measles — the diseases that the Gates Foundation has helped to inoculate him against.

Investing for profit

AT the end of 2005, the Gates Foundation endowment stood at $35 billion, making it the largest in the world. Then in June 2006, Warren E. Buffett, the world's second-richest man after Bill Gates, pledged to add about $31 billion in installments from his personal fortune. Not counting tens of billions of dollars more that Gates himself has promised, the total is higher than the gross domestic products of 70% of the world's nations.

Like most philanthropies, the Gates Foundation gives away at least 5% of its worth every year, to avoid paying most taxes. In 2005, it granted nearly $1.4 billion. It awards grants mainly in support of global health initiatives, for efforts to improve public education in the United States, and for social welfare programs in the Pacific Northwest.

It invests the other 95% of its worth. This endowment is managed by Bill Gates Investments, which handles Gates' personal fortune. Monica Harrington, a senior policy officer at the foundation, said the investment managers had one goal: returns "that will allow for the continued funding of foundation programs and grant making." Bill and Melinda Gates require the managers to keep a highly diversified portfolio, but make no specific directives.

By comparing these investments with information from for-profit services that analyze corporate behavior for mutual funds, pension managers, government agencies and other foundations, The Times found that the Gates Foundation has holdings in many companies that have failed tests of social responsibility because of environmental lapses, employment discrimination, disregard for worker rights, or unethical practices.

One of these investment rating services, Calvert Group Ltd., for example, endorses 52 of the largest 100 U.S. companies based on market capitalization, but flags the other 48 for transgressions against social responsibility. Microsoft Corp., which Bill Gates leads as board chairman, is rated highly for its overall business practices, despite its history of antitrust problems.

In addition, The Times found the Gates Foundation endowment had major holdings in:

• Companies ranked among the worst U.S. and Canadian polluters, including ConocoPhillips, Dow Chemical Co. and Tyco International Ltd.

• Many of the world's other major polluters, including companies that own an oil refinery and one that owns a paper mill, which a study shows sicken children while the foundation tries to save their parents from AIDS.

• Pharmaceutical companies that price drugs beyond the reach of AIDS patients the foundation is trying to treat.

Using the most recent data available, a Times tally showed that hundreds of Gates Foundation investments — totaling at least $8.7 billion, or 41% of its assets, not including U.S. and foreign government securities — have been in companies that countered the foundation's charitable goals or socially concerned philosophy.

Much More: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-gatesx07jan07,0,6827615.story

[WriteDown]

47. These articles crack me up..

Talking about endowment holdings is like talking about 401K investments. You may literally be talking about 100's if not 1000's of different companies. If you buy a snow shovel to help an elderly woman clear her drive-way, do you worry about the shovel factories pollutants? And are you open-game for criticism?

[ChromeFoundry]

48. You have no control over where your 401K is invested?

Really? I guess when there is a profit to be made, that trumps your social awareness, eh?

You don't do any research when making your major purchases? Do you look for a "Made in USA" label to ensure that no slave labor was instilled in the manufacturing of the product you are purchasing, where our government has laws to protect workers rights and the environment?

If the Gates Foundation really cared about their primary goal... Yes, they have enough power over their investors looking for a tax break.

...is that you Bill?

[WriteDown]

50. Haha...Have you ever had a 401K?

Many of the funds that comprised mine consist of 100's of stocks over several sections of industry to manage risk. Sounds like you've never dealth with a 401K.

I buy made in the USA whenever possible, but as most people know, sometimes it just isn't possible.

If I were actually Gates, I would just horde my money and not do a thing with it. Kind of like the Jobs foundation.(Of wait...there isn't one). People seem a lot happier that way.

[ChromeFoundry]

52. Three...

and I have full control over where I wish to diversify my money. Haven't lost a cent during this economic downturn, like most have in those "managed" accounts. Since you don't, you are either very trusting of others or too stupid to manage it yourself... either way, you try to talk a strong game, I'll give you that.

I buy made in the USA whenever possible, but as most people know, sometimes it just isn't possible.

Ever owned a foreign car (ha, like i'd really get an honest answer from you)? I haven't...and never will. If you look hard enough, you'll find a lot of the products that you purchase can be bought from US manufactures; face it, you just refuse to pay the difference in cost.

What does having to be Bill Gates have to do with hording your money? You can do that now... maybe you can even be a happier person. Maybe you won't even need DU to give you that false sense of superiority that you get when you post and make an ass out of yourself. Do you really think others cannot see right through it?

[WriteDown]

55. Haven't lost a cent?

Yep, neither have I since I haven't tapped any of it. If you haven't lost a cent, then you are too risk averse in my opinion.

Just google my posts on that subject. I did own a 1982 BMW that I bought for 650$ once. Your argument is somewhat nonsensical though. I was at Home Depot the other day and needed a pull saw. They had two versions. One was made in Japan, the other China. Want to guess which one I got?

You accused me of being Bill Gates so I responded in kind. I noticed you did not address all the good works done by the Jobs Foundation.

[vow66]

51. Yeah.....Steve Jobs is an angel

Steve Jobs takes a token annual salary of $1 to avoid paying Income tax.
http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2007/11/steve-jobs-may

Jobs has taken only a token annual salary of $1 since returning to Apple in 1996, for which he is recognized as the world's lowest-paid CEO by Guinness World Records. He is well-compensated by other means, however, being the frequent recipient of gifts from Apple's board of directors, such as a Gulfstream Jet and tens of millions of shares in restricted stock, which have contributed to Jobs's estimated net worth of $5.7 billion.
One incentive for this form of compensation: Capital gains tax on stock market profits is less exacting than federal income tax on earnings.


Steve Jobs, Proud to Be Nonunion
http://www.wired.com/techbiz/people/news/2007/02/72754


Jobs to get "Rotten Apple' award without apology
http://www.macnn.com/articles/07/02/23/teachers.demand.apology
Bergan offers a history of Apple's "Think Different" ad campaign, pointing to the Cupertino-based company's black and white photos featuring instantly recognizable heroes such as Latino civil rights icon Cesar Chavez. The CFT president says Apple resisted granting union recognition to its low paid largely Latino contracted Silicon Valley janitorial workforce in the 1990s until the Justice for Janitors union embarrassed the computer maker sufficiently "to bring Jobs and his company around."


iPod maker admits breaking Chinese labor laws; says Apple approved sweatshop labor
http://macdailynews.com/index.php/weblog/comments/9988
"Apple Computer is getting into a deep PR mess over the antics of one of its Chinese partners," Nick Farrell reports for The Inquirer.

"After denying that it was running a sweatshop that would be familiar to Charles Dickens, Apple's Ipod manufacturer, Foxconn has finally admitted that it broken Chinese labour laws," Farrell reports.


Woz: OK, so Jobs stole from me, but he also made the iPod
http://valleywag.gawker.com/359590/woz-ok-so-jobs-stole-from-me-but-he-also-made-the-ipod


Great Artists Steal - Triumph of the Nerds
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRl0wuyiU1w


Apple lobbied against state e-waste recycling legislation and continues to lobby against takeback bills.
http://www.texasenvironment.org/ewaste_apple.cfm
However, Apple has yet to set any public recycling goals, as Dell and HP have, so it’s too soon to tell how committed Apple is to publicizing its program and making it work.

[OhioChick]

54. I already knew that Jobs was no angel, either. n/t

[MicaelS]

56. Really?

Then why make the negative points about Gates. So they are not as progressive as you would like, too bad. Their foundation still gives away 1.4 billion dollars a year. That's a damn sight more than Jobs will EVER do and that much money can make a great deal of positive difference.

[OhioChick]

18. I wonder if his employees have the same health coverage as him?

Regardless, I wish him well.

[REP]

33. Yes, they do

[Cha]

24. I've never read about anyone

who survived "pancreatic cancer"! That's what Michael Landon Jr had and Patrick Swayze has.

And, now a liver transplant..sounds like Jobs has been fighting for his life with all his strength.

[REP]

34. Read more, then.

[devastated1981]

25. I wish him PRIVACY! Glad he made it two months before this was leaked. n/t

[REP]

35. AB- = Universal Recipient = shorter waiting time on transplant lists

I don't know if Jobs is AB-. He probably isn't B- (longest wait, no matter how severe the disease is). He may have been an easy type to match.

Not directed at you, DB - there's an amazing amount of medical ignorance on this thread, and I'm posting here rather than replying to each.

[AngryAmish]

53. He should have got a Mac