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US doctors treat Yushchenko for poisoning
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-03-12 09:04 US doctors traveled to Vienna in December to help
treat Ukrainian opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko for dioxin poisoning,
officials said, while denying there was any political motivation.
US State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Yushchenko was seen by
doctors from the University of Virginia.
US doctors traveled to Vienna in December to
help treat Ukrainian opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko, seen here 09
March 2005 for dioxin poisoning, officials said, while denying there was
any political motivation. [AFP] |
"We provided what I would call limited routine assistance to them," the
spokesman added.
"I would note that the department and I think others in the US government
provided lists of qualified experts at the request of the family. And it was the
family that ultimately chose the University of Virginia doctors."
The Washington Post reported earlier that the US doctors went on a secret
mission to Vienna to treat Yushchenko.
Gregory Saathoff, team leader of the US medical mission, said the US
government was not directly involved in the effort, to avoid accusations of
interference in Ukraine's presidential election, but an unnamed top US official
was quoted as saying the State Department had provided logistical support.
Michael Zimpfer, director of the Vienna clinic where the treatment took
place, said the US team had provided expertise on a "difficult, vexing case" and
also a "qualified second opinion" on the treatment to follow.
Ukraine's foreign minister, on an official visit to Washington, said he had
not seen the report and did not confirm or deny any part of it.
As the doctor who briefed reporters on Yushchenko's health during his stay at
the Rudolfinerhaus clinic, Zimpfer "was the greatest cover, because he was so
willing to take the credit for everything," the senior US official was quoted as
saying.
The pro-Western Yushchenko won the presidency after a re-run election against
pro-Russian rival, Viktor Yanukovich. He is to carry out his first official
visit to the United States next month.
During the campaign, Yushchenko's photogenic, youthful face was ravaged by
pustules typical of dioxin poisoning.
The request for US assistance for Yushchenko came from his family late last
year, via an official in the Pentagon, the official was quoted as saying by the
Post, adding that Saathoff kept in touch with the State Department throughout
the trip.
In October, a Ukrainian lawmaker brought samples of Yushchenko's hair, nails
and blood to Washington for analysis, and they were given to Robert McConnell,
who runs the US Ukraine Foundation and recruited Saathoff and his team.
Saathoff said he put together a team of about six US physicians of various
specialties, naming only the toxicologist -- Christopher Holstege, also of the
University of Virginia -- who on October 31 placed dioxin at the top of the list
of possible substances responsible for Yushchenko's condition.
The diagnosis was confirmed a few weeks later by a laboratory in the
Netherlands, and the US team of doctors left Vienna on December 12.
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