Is it possible that Steve Jobs made a poor choice that ultimately cost him his life?
I had no idea that Jobs delayed his potentially curative surgery after initial diagnosis to try to cure his cancer “with a special diet”.
Talking Business – Apple’s Culture of Secrecy – NYTimes.com: “It was an uplifting tale, and an inspiring message. It was also less than the whole truth. In fact, Mr. Jobs first discovered he had an islet cell neuroendocrine tumor — which is both rarer and less deadly than other forms of pancreatic cancer — in October 2003. This was a full nine months before he had the surgery to remove it. Why did he wait so long? Because, according to a Fortune magazine article published in May, Mr. Jobs was hoping to beat the cancer with a special diet.”
My surgeon friends love to say “To cut is to cure”. It’s very true in the case of curing cancer by surgical removal. I have a friend who beat non-small cell lung cancer because she saw a trailer offering screening chest X-Rays. As a smoker, it seemed like a good idea. Within days her cancer was operated on for a cure.
I criticize our biomedical and healthcare industry plenty. Profit seeking and defensiveness cost us money. But I worry about how alternatives are positioned when they delay timely and potentially life saving treatment. Interesting that an intellect as vigorous as Steve Jobs’ apparently can make a choice like that.
I’ll be interested to see whether the authorized bio coming out deals with the delay.
