Complications in Denktash recovery

POSTOPERATIVE complications, following Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash’ recent open heart surgery, led his New York doctors to drain a fluid build up in his lungs, the Turkish Cypriot paper Kibris, reported yesterday.

Denktash’s doctors had to drain fluid from his lungs twice, it said. The first intervention resulted in drawing 800 grams of fluid.

But his spokesman, Ertun Olgun said his health was good and denied innuendos that this treatment was a postoperative complication.

“There are no complications. After the surgery it is normal to have a certain amount of fluid build up in the lungs. The fluid was drained and he is fine,” he said on Thursday, adding that Denktash could be discharged as early as next week.

New York’s Columbia Presbyterian Medical Centre also confirmed the Turkish Cypriot leader was in stable condition, but would not give any further details.

According to Dr. Dervis Oral, part of the medical team in charge of the 78- year-old, drawing fluid from his lungs would help him breathe more easily. However, he said, his doctors did not want him to be discharged just yet. Oral pointed out this was also because Denktash was a diabetic and that his condition could be controlled better in hospital than in a hotel.

Meanwhile, Denktash’s son Serdar has postponed his trip to New York, after being informed his father’s health was on the mend.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.