Steve Jobs Is Very, Very Sick

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Jun 22 2009, 3:56 pm by Megan McArdle

So, Steve Jobs was a lot sicker than Apple let on--like, liver transplant sick. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Jobs underwent a liver transplant two months ago in order to deal with the liver metastes of his neuroendocrine pancreatic tumor.

Orac has some extended explanation. Key points:

1) Steve Jobs' wealth and power let him jump the queue for organ transplants in a way that even I am uncomfortable with--and I am in favor of paying organ donors.

2) The transplant is highly controversial with an unknown success rate

3) There's a pretty good chance that in the next five years, we'll find out whether CEOs matter--at least to Apple.

Comments (4)

BetteP June 22, 2009 5:29 PM

Thank goodness I took the time to read the entire article from Orac and the comments on that page. The extrapolation above does not do just to the essence of the explanation, nor does it give enough emphasis to the fact that Orac is supposing a lot based on a very limited data set. I am not sure what the purpose of this distillation is, but it does not accurately reflect the original writer's thesis in my humble opinion.

Deborah Calvert June 22, 2009 7:14 PM

It wasn't Jobs' wealth and power that put him in front of the transplant line, it was our need for his incredible visionary mind. His type only presents a civilization with a few in a lifetime. If Einstein had cancer and we could have saved him for the sake of our space race for example, would you be bitter about it? Instead, I see the value in saving a mind such as his. And I've never met him, don't know him, don't work for him, only know what I read.

Deborah Calvert, Newport Beach, California

typo (Replying to: Deborah Calvert) June 22, 2009 7:50 PM

Incredible visionary mind? Dude is a businessman. It's not like he's out there devising cures to cancer or unlocking the secrets of DNA. He's making a (a few) bucks. To put him on par with Einstein isn't a bit of a stretch. It's pulling an Evel Knievel.

On second reading, perhaps your post was satire. If so, I apologize.

ReB June 22, 2009 9:38 PM

Steve Jobs reported for work today, Sept. 22nd. His cancer is slow growing and a liver transplant can yield a long life. Liver transplants have a 75% chance of 5 years added lifespan. Liver transplants are normally done for other, more threatening diseases. It is rare for anyone with metastasized tumors to be approved for transplants. Jobs' tumor is an exception. Tennessee has a short waiting period for liver transplants so the speculation of Jobs jumping over anyone is likely false as his transplant was likely requested in January and the operation done in March. Tennessee's wait is about 48 days. A cancer surgeon in Stanford, CA said today that such transplants in Jobs' case were quite successful.

Why can someone with the urge to post on Jobs can fail to find such commonly available information counter to the content posted leads one to believe that opinion or macabre humor was the driving force behind the drivel.