OT: Roger Ebert ill, in serious but stable condition

[opinionista]

Since some of you have posted or comment some of Ebert's articles, I thougth you should know he's now very ill.


Ebert condition serious after operation

Monday, July 3, 2006 Posted: 0003 GMT (0803 HKT)

CHICAGO, Illinois (AP) -- Film critic Roger Ebert, who has battled cancer in recent years, was in serious but stable condition Sunday following an emergency operation to repair complications from a previous cancer surgery.

Chicago Sun-Times columnist Richard Roeper -- co-host of the "Ebert and Roeper" movie review show -- told the paper that Ebert's vital signs appeared to be good after the hours-long operation.

Ebert's family told WLS-TV, one of his employers, that they expected him to make a full recovery.

Ebert had surgery June 16 to remove a cancerous growth on his salivary gland. He told Sun-Times columnist Robert Feder at the time that the condition was not life threatening and he expected to make a full recovery.

About 8 p.m. Saturday, a blood vessel burst near the site of the operation, the Sun-Times reported Sunday on its Web site. A Northwestern Memorial Hospital spokeswoman declined to comment Sunday afternoon.

The 64-year-old has undergone cancer surgery three times before -- once in 2002 to remove a malignant tumor on his thyroid gland and twice on his salivary gland the next year.

Ebert has been a film critic at the Chicago Sun-Times since 1967. He won the Pulitzer Prize for criticism in 1975, the same year he teamed up with Gene Siskel of the rival Chicago Tribune to launch their movie-review show. Siskel died in 1999. (Full story)

http://edition.cnn.com/2006/SHOWBIZ/Movies/07/02/ebert.ill.ap/index.html

[ednbarby]

That's too bad.  64 is way too young to be going through all of that.