RE: Ashcroft in critical condition.
Heres the latest I can find on our AG.
WASHINGTON "” Deputy Attorney General James Comey has taken over day-to-day supervision of the Justice Department while Attorney General John Ashcroft remains hospitalized in an intensive care unit with a severe case of gallstone pancreatitis
Comey, however, is not being called "acting" attorney general because he has not assumed any new powers. He already had the authority he needs. Under existing regulations, the deputy attorney general is authorized to exercise all power and authority of the attorney general irrespective of whether the attorney general is ill or otherwise unavailable, Justice Department officials say.
Ashcroft entered George Washington University Hospital (search) on Thursday night after complaining about what he thought was a severe stomach flu.
The 61-year-old former Missouri senator was checked out by a White House physician after Ashcroft canceled an afternoon event in which he was to have announced verdicts in a terrorism case.
"After a full medical work-up in the emergency room, it was determined that he was suffering from a severe case of gallstone pancreatitis," said Justice Department spokesman Mark Corallo. "He was admitted to intensive care for careful monitoring and is being treated with antibiotics."
The pancreas is a gland that secretes digestive enzymes and insulin. It can become inflamed by excessive alcohol use or, as in Ashcroft's case, a gallstone that blocks the passage leading from the pancreas to the beginning of the small intestine. It also may be caused by infection, injury or certain medications.
Symptoms include sudden, severe abdominal pain, loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting and fever. About 80,000 cases of acute pancreatitis are diagnosed each year, according to the National Institutes of Health (search ).
In 85 to 90 percent of patients, acute pancreatitis resolves completely in three to seven days after treatment is instituted. However, medical experts said that the attorney general likely will need surgery to remove the gallstones. He currently is on an antibiotic course. Antibiotics are frequently administered to treat the inflammation or infection, but the gallstone must pass before healing can begin.
President Bush called Ashcroft on Friday and spoke briefly with him and Mrs. Ashcroft. Bush told them that his thoughts and prayers were with them, said White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan.
At the Springfield, Mo., Assemblies of God headquarters "” where Ashcroft, a highly religious man, is well known "” the Rev. Thomas E. Trask used the intercom system to lead some 1,100 employees in a prayer for Ashcroft.
Ashcroft is expected to remain in the hospital for a minimum of a few days, but doctors have not given any indication yet of what his recovery time could be.
Dr. John Baillie, a gastroenterologist (search) and professor of medicine at Duke University Medical Center, said people with severe pancreatitis often stay in the hospital for a month or longer. He said there is a 10 percent to 20 percent risk of death, but those tend to occur among older people who have underlying medical conditions such as kidney disease or poorly controlled diabetes.
Ashcroft is considered a healthy man. He hikes, skis, plays basketball and regularly clears brush on a property he owns in Virginia. At work, he usually shuns the elevator for the five flights of stairs to his office.
Baillie explained that pancreatitis is "like a hand grenade going off, an explosion in the abdomen" that essentially shuts down the digestive system and causes a sharp internal buildup in fluids.
When gallstones do cause enough damage to the pancreas, low blood pressure and damage to the organs can occur.
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THE NRA, WHERE WOULD YOU AS A GUN-OWNER BE WITHOUT THEM.
GUN-OWNERS, UNITED WE STAND DIVIDED WE FALL.
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