Doctor says Estrada needs surgery

Doctor says Estrada needs surgery

PHILIPPINES: Detained former president Joseph Estrada will be crippled within three years without immediate knee surgery, a government doctor told a court on Wednesday.

The court heard a two-month-old petition by Estrada, who is on trial for corruption, to travel abroad for a surgical remedy to osteoarthritis in his right knee.

Veterans Memorial Medical Center official Liberato Casison, who recommended immediate surgery, said that based on X-rays on the knee of Estrada, who turns 65 next week, he had developed "spurs" on the knee and his tibia had "thickened because of the friction caused by the loss of cartilage".

State prosecutors oppose his leaving the country, arguing that there are adequate medical facilities in the Philippines for the procedure and that Estrada was merely using the travel bid as a ruse to flee into U.S. exile. --AFP