Soeharto's illness revealed: It's diverculitis

Soeharto's illness revealed: It's diverculitis

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta

Former president Soeharto has to get blood transfusion in the
next few days due to internal bleeding on his digestion track
but overall his health condition is better than two years ago,
a doctor says.

"Pak Harto is suffering from diverculitis. When he was
admitted here, he suffered bleeding on his digestion canal. He
has so far received some blood transfusions. We will do it
everyday (until he gets better)," said Dr. Hermansyur, one of
Soeharto's nine-member team of doctors.

Hermansyur was speaking during a press conference attended by
Soeharto's medical team members including Dr. Kunindrodadi, who
heads Soeharto's team of private doctors, intestine experts Dr.
Waldemar Simanjuntak and Aziz Rani, and heart expert Dr. Yuniarti
Tanjung.

Soeharto, 82, was brought to the Pertamina hospital in South
Jakarta on Monday afternoon after complaining of being weak.

The bleeding, Aziz disclosed, originated from a wound in his
digestion canal doctors had already detected in 2002.

"It's a relapse, which is common among people of his age,"
Aziz said.

Hermansyur admitted that Soeharto's health condition was
better than in 2002.

"But, we don't know how long he will remain here," he said.

Kunindrodadi, meanwhile, said that the team of doctors would
take care of Soeharto seriously due to his age and to detect
relapse of possible other diseases he had in the past.

During the legislative election on April 5 Soeharto looked
healthy. He walked unaided from his private house to the nearby
polling station in the plush Menteng housing complex in Central
Jakarta.

Soeharto was forced to resign from his presidential post in
May 1998 after 33 years in office. Citing his poor health, his
well-paid lawyers had managed to prevent the government from
bringing him to justice for his alleged corruption.

The South Jakarta District Court shared the lawyers' argument
and declared in 2002 that the prosecutors would indict Soeharto
if he was healthy.

Since then, the Attorney General's Office (AGO) has asked
Soeharto to undergo medical test twice after media reports
suggested that he was healthy enough to attend a wedding ceremony
of his granddaughter and to visit his favorite son Hutomo "Tommy"
Mandala Putra, who is jailed for murder in the Nusakambangan
penitentiary.

The team of doctors set up for the test said that Soeharto
suffered from permanent brain damage after two strokes.