Comments on: Hospital confirms Steve Jobs' liver transplant

Apple's CEO "has an excellent prognosis" after undergoing liver transplant surgery about two months ago at Methodist University Hospital in Memphis, doctor says.

[pilotmike]

Isn't this a violation of privacy law. What ever happened to doctor/ patient confidentiality ???? This doctor should be released and sued. It is no one's business

[paulej]

The article said "... Eason said the confirmation was being provided with Jobs' approval..."

[Belinus]

Literacy ftw!

[Mr. Dee]

Its a shame when people don't read.

[Dalmatian28]

I agree that doctor should be sued .....but it should be sued for different reason and it is called discrimination. There is something called "waiting list" for liver transplant and the fact that he got it so quickly raises the question of discrimination against those that were on the waiting list before him. He bought his way to that liver...he should have been waiting his turn like everyone else! This is why I like USA....there are one set of rules for reach, famous and connected and there are other set of rules for everyone else.

[manuel_v_v]

@ Dalmatian28, you do know there is a pannel of MD's that deliberate on the severity of someone's condition and where on the transplant list they should be placed ? It's not a one man call to say where a person should be on this list. Do you have any idea how sick a person can get in 6 months ? or even how sick he was b4 he stepped down ?
It's called waiting list for lack of a better name, but its more or a priority list. It does kinda suck but at the moment the organ becomes available the person in the most critical condition (assuming a transplant will have a benefitial prognosis) gets the transplant

[Fil0403]

Isn't this a violation a common sense? Whatever happened to reading the article before commenting? This user should be banned and blocked. It's ridiculous.

"While Eason said the confirmation was being provided with Jobs' approval, he cited patient confidentiality in saying that he could not reveal any further information on the specifics of Jobs' surgery."

[Imallvol7]

He said he had Job's approval. There's nothing wrong with that.

[Goodbye Helicopter]

why can't everybody just give the guy some privacy?

[monkeyfun14]

When the companies sucess depends on this guy the stock holders would like to be assured that their stock they paid over $130 a share for keeps in value.

[shootfirst]

Don't expect privacy when you made a career attaching your name to a fruity company. If he wants privacy he can give away all his money, but then he wouldn't have been able to buy a liver... Apple is in the spotlight and the guy behind Apple will be in the spotlight thats the price of success.

[sythara]

monkeyfun14,

Jobs is not the god of apple. I don't care if he lives or dies because this one person is not important enough to impact the price. Sure if something happens to him the human element will impact the price for a short time, but the bottom line to stock price is that you want to make sure the company has good S&P rating, credit line, etc... not the wellbeing of their CEO.

If something were to happen to him and price of Apple would plummit, thats the perfect time to buy because it will always go back up, in a year or two. Look at Bank of America, if you would have bought their stock 6 montrhs ago and sold it right now you would have made a tonn of money.

[Vegaman_Dan]

@Sythara:

"Jobs is not the god of apple."

Fans and investors alike would tend to disagree. It's that level of idology and devotion that borders on religion that makes this important for those to know.

He is the 'face' of Apple. When he is seen as sick or diseased, then Apple's public face is also seen to share that image even if it isn't deserved.

[cvaldes1831]

FAIL

[wylbur]

So jobs did the skeazy private jet thing of getting a liver transplant in another region where the wait was shorter-- I bet he had himself on all the regional lists and a plane waiting all the time.

Well, he's still a goner. I'd give him about a dozen years on the anti-immune system drugs he has to take to keep that liver. Then some infection is going to get to him. And don't expect the old Steve, he is going to be feeling miserable for every remaining day of his life.

People won't give jobs his privacy because Apple has never worked well without him around. People like Warren Buffet, a comparably non-disposable CEO, generally disclose more about his health than Steve Jobs. Of course, Steve Jobs, in a fit of anger, disclosed all to a NYT reporter in clear violation of regulation FD. I should get to know what Joe knows! If the SEC continues to let that go, they are telegraphing that FD won't be enforced-- good job SEC, way to help investors.

[SiliconValleyJoe]

Wow, I hope you never have a disease like that one day. You a doctor or a cancer researcher? I happen to have a cousin who is a cancer researcher at an institution on the east coast and he told me the complete opposite of your "dozen years" prognosis, depending on various factors. It is not so cut and dry.

[SiliconValleyJoe]

Just found this article on-line, you may find it educational.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=ax_6mEPxzi3I

[Thomas, David]

only thing skeazy around this story is you, and others like you.

If you even bothered, for one damn second, to do any reading you'd be ashamed ... oh no, wait ... that's if you had any real morality, and decent conscious, rather than an incredibly heavy amount of crap.

[b_baggins]

And here we go again.

Liver transplants can use live donors.

So what was your point again?

[gregspira]

There's nothing skeazy about getting a transplant in a region where the wait is shorter. That's exactly what I did (for a kidney, not liver), and I didn't have - or need - a private plane - or a million (or billion) dollar bank account. Getting on a 2-hour commercial plane ride to go take a few hours of tests at a transplant center where where the average wait is a year and a half instead of six and a half takes mostly some determination.

And as far as your diagnosis of Steve's future, you don't know what you are talking about. While short-term survival is far from assured, it's not unusual at all to survive several decades with a liver transplant. And if he does that, he's unlikely to be miserable and equally unlikely to die from some infection, since the doses of iimmunosuppressive drugs he has to take will be very small after the first two years. His biggest risk factor is his initial disease.

Note that it's a generally a good idea - although one not practiced often on the internet - to have some idea of what you are talking about before speaking.

[Vegaman_Dan]

There's nothing wrong with this. He simply used his money and power to go to a location that had a shorter list. If he ended up bumping off someone else who would have gotten the liver otherwise, but didn't have the power of wealth, then that's just too bad for that person. There will be another liver later, I'm sure.

What's the point of having power and wealth if you don't use it?

[cary1]

I guess Steve Jobs didn't have a "Government bureaucrat" standing between him and the liver ;)

See, there is a reason why republicans don't want government run health care. If everyone gets the same treatment, what is the use of being wealthy and powerful?

[Saltiva]

@ David Thomas, You think Steve Jobs has any morality or a conscious? You think his MELD score was the HIGHEST and that he played fair?

[johndoughnut]

the real issues here are two-fold:
1 - how does a palo alto resident bump equally worthy patients in TN? and
2 - how does Steve Jobs PR time rationalize the countless reports that his health is not so bad (lying to shareholders) with a sudden dramatic issue like a requirement for a new liver?

[SiliconValleyJoe]

How do you know he "dumped" anyone? The hospital just announced the MELD ranking.

[SiliconValleyJoe]

By the way, liver cancer can be tough to detect and sometimes, more often than one cares to accept, it is missed until it is too late.

I have no clue if Apple stonewalled investors regarding his health but from what I know of cancer, it is more likely that his doctor did not detect the cancer until a short while before he took the leave. If you give people the benefit of a doubt, the whole episode sounded like he was given a clean bill of health and then some tests came back positive and he had to act to save his life.

I am surprised at the attitude here. SOme of you are amazingly crass and heartless. So is WSJ actually, no class at all. The concern is not for a person's life but for your pocket. Amazing and a sad testament to where our country is heading....

[b_baggins]

Not only that, but liver transplants can use live donors. Odds are the organ became available during the testing process on one or more live donors. That's how it was with my nephew.

[gregspira]

The answer to #1 is that he goes to the Tennessee hospital and takes a series of tests, passes them, and the doctors say he could use a transplant, he's on the list. And when an organ becomes available and his condition makes him the person compatible with that organ who is most in need of it, - and he can show up quickly enough to have the surgery - he gets the transplant. It doesn't matter if he's from TN or Siberia.

Obviously, the liver would have gone to someone else if not Jobs, but there's no reason to assume it was someone from tN and the liver might very well have ended up at a different hospital.

The answer to #2 is that I think its clear that Jobs did not think he needed a transplant when the first health announcement was made in January. When he announced a week later that he was taking 6 months off, then he probably knew that a transplant was at least a real possibility.

[terminalblue]

wow...i hope everyone becomes the president of Apple so they can get a liver transplant when they need it.

[ckh1272]

@terminalblue--Get a life!! We already know you don't like Apple, so making that kind of statement pretty much exposes your bias.

[saffroncapital]

So your all pissed that Jobs could shop around for the best liver deal in town... its your damn healthcare system - you voted for it - now you have to live with the consequences.

[b_baggins]

Except that, a: liver transplants can use live donors, b: the next of kin of an organ donor can specifically name who receives the organs if they want, and c: MELD numbers are assigned anonymously, so the people making the assignments didn't know it was Steve Jobs until they made the phone call.

So, what, exactly, was your point again? Other than the fact your bitter with envy, I mean.

[AppleSuxLeo]

Next we will hear he has been getting HD ?

[SiliconValleyJoe]

Here is an article that discusses Jobs' condition and what happens to liver transplant recipient.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=ax_6mEPxzi3I

You will be surprised by what liver transplant is all about.

[LoudHeart]

I am glad that the operation went positive. This young man, Steve Jobs, has many good years ahead of him. Get well SJ.

[MacVaultDweller]

Get strong and healthy Steve Jobs. My prayers for you and your family. Fighting cancer can take a lot out of you I know my girlfriend and I have been fighting her breast cancer for two years now. She fights not just for herself or for us but for her little boy. So keep fighting for your children even when you want to give up because they love you and they need you.

[businesscontacts]

This information was released precisely to avoid speculation that he "bought" rights to the transplant

[ckh1272]

Unfortunately some people (not naming names) don't care to know all the details. They just want to know the FUD so that they can spread the word!

[b_baggins]

Especially considering the fact that liver transplants can use live donors. A trivial little fact that no one seems to be aware of.

[Seaspray0]

I get the point, b baggins. Liver transplants can use liver donors. Ooops, now you made me say it.

[b_baggins]

When you're dealing with ignorant boneheads, repetition is required.

[pdskep]

@baggins. Stop being such an idiot. Hundreds of people a year die waiting for a liver, partial or full. The issue is if Jobs used his influence to bump someone else down the list. There are still a much smaller number of donors than needed recepiants so your repetition is pointless.

[carguy622]

Jeez people, the man had surgery. Whatever happened to Get Well Soon!

[b_baggins]

Welcome to America in the 21st century. A nation so steeped in envy that all it can do is spew forth vitriol.

[kfdodgerfan]

From what I've read here and and on other boards is the following:

1. Be well Steve and have a speedy recovery. (Fewest posts overall)
2. Apple and Steve are a bunch of secretive cronies who need to disclose every bit of his health status because it matter to me on whether or not I buy or sell Apple stock.
3. In spite of what the hospital sated, a rich dude used his private jet and gets the Larry Hagman treatment while a poor working class dude probably died getting bumped. I hope he dies rather than lives as long as possible so he can't see his kids grow up.

Kind of tells you the kind of people we are. Right?

In reality, we're all internet tough guys who probably would poop our pants working for a CEO like Jobs who demands excellence from his employees to put out great products.

[DaveB1980]

When I read "news" like this, I still fail to see why his health is everyone's business? It falls in the same category as the celebrity gossip about who's dating, who got married, who split up, etc. Why are public figures' private lives not ever private these days?

Man, people need to learn to find fulfillment in their own lives and not be seeking it vicariously through others'.

[Seaspray0]

"Why are public figures' private lives not ever private these days?"

Isn't that what it means to be a public figure?

[cheapcomputeruser]

Would Steve Jobs been able to do this dirty deed bumping to the top of list if Obama's health care plan was in effect

[Vegaman_Dan]

There's an easy way to make all of this speculation and rumor mongering go away.

Answer the questions, Apple.

That's all they need to do. Be open and honest, let the public know what was going on and they will get more sympathy for Mr. Jobs and his condition. By the repeated attempts to cover it up, distract people, and to dismiss it entirely make people think there is something more going on than we see. In the lack of information, misinformation spreads.

Open up, tell us the facts, and then it becomes a non-story.

[skunkpuddle]

I hope the person who had to wait for their liver because Jobs had the money to fly to another state and create a residency didn't die before they received their transplant.

[xcopy]

money and power means you can "cut the line"... Same as it ever was....

I've heard many asking "I wonder who died so Jobs could get the liver"? I find myself in that camp too... I'd like to hear from the family of the victim....