{"id":1022,"date":"2024-01-10T01:34:41","date_gmt":"2024-01-10T01:34:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/2024\/01\/10\/pentagon-slammed-for-calling-lloyd-austins-surgery-to-remove-cancer-elective-arguing-semantics\/"},"modified":"2024-01-10T01:34:41","modified_gmt":"2024-01-10T01:34:41","slug":"pentagon-slammed-for-calling-lloyd-austins-surgery-to-remove-cancer-elective-arguing-semantics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/2024\/01\/10\/pentagon-slammed-for-calling-lloyd-austins-surgery-to-remove-cancer-elective-arguing-semantics\/","title":{"rendered":"Pentagon slammed for calling Lloyd Austin&#8217;s surgery to remove cancer &#8216;elective&#8217;: &#8216;Arguing semantics&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/health\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Doctors are calling out<\/a> the Pentagon for calling Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin&#8217;s recent medical procedure to treat prostrate cancer an &#8220;elective&#8221; surgery,&#8221; saying that characterization is misleading.<\/p>\n<p>The 70-year-old <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/category\/politics\/defense\/secretary-of-defense\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Defense secretary was<\/a> hospitalized on Jan. 1 for complications from what officials are still calling an &#8220;elective&#8221; medical procedure that was later revealed to be related to prostate cancer. The Pentagon chief&#8217;s cancer diagnosis was made public Tuesday. The administration had previously only disclosed on Friday that Austin had been hospitalized earlier that week.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The Biden administration has taken heat for its handling of Austin&#8217;s absence, particularly on the issue of transparency, and, now, its facing backlash for telling the public last week when details of Austin&#8217;s condition were scarce that he had undergone an &#8220;elective&#8221; surgery.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Speaking Tuesday with Fox News Digital, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/video\/6337280060112\">Fox News contributor Dr. Marc Siegel<\/a>, said Austin&#8217;s prostatectomy is &#8220;technically an elective surgery,&#8221; but that characterization is misleading.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/politics\/biden-not-informed-secretary-austins-cancer-diagnosis-weeks-after-same-day-public-not-optimal\"><strong>BIDEN NOT INFORMED OF SECRETARY AUSTIN&#8217;S CANCER DIAGNOSIS UNTIL WEEKS AFTER, SAME DAY AS PUBLIC: \u2018NOT OPTIMAL\u2019<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Elective is divided into emergency and non-emergency. We take elective mostly to mean a nose job and so the word elective is misleading. This is prostate cancer,&#8221; Siegel said. &#8220;Not all prostate cancer is operated on, but they decided to take it out because they thought it was aggressive-probably from the biopsy,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>Siegel said it is misleading to call Austin&#8217;s prostate cancer surgery a minimally invasive surgery.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Even though the da Vinci robot is technically considered minimally invasive surgery, it implies that it&#8217;s a small operation. It would be better to define Austin&#8217;s surgery as robotic prostate surgery.&#8221;\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;But going under anesthesia <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/health\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">and general surgery<\/a> is not a walk in the park that needs to be taken very seriously, even if our technology has improved greatly,&#8221; Siegel said.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/politics\/bidens-handling-defense-sec-austins-mysterious-absence-backlash-former-ambassador\"><strong>BIDEN&#8217;S HANDLING OF DEFESNE SEC AUSTIN&#8217;S MYSTERIOUS ABSENCE FACES BACKLASH FROM FORMER AMBASSADOR: \u2018ALARMING\u2019<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Dr. Nicole Saphier, a Fox News contributor and radiologist, told Fox News Digital that she would not consider a cancer surgery to be elective.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Anyone would think that cancer treatment is not elective, but as we learned during COVID, the definition of elective is very different from a physician or even a patient\u2019s perspective, Dr. Saphier said. &#8220;Cancer surgeries were delayed during the early stages of COVID when <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/category\/health\/beauty-and-skin\/cosmetic-surgery\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">all elective cases<\/a> were put on hold.&#8221;\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Ultimately, cancer is life-threatening, so it is really arguing semantics whether you want to call cancer treatment, elective or not,&#8221; she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;My personal opinion as a cancer specialist and human, I would not consider a cancer surgery to be elective, but the reality is, his prostate cancer was not immediately life-threatening at the moment,&#8221; Dr. Saphier said. &#8220;Therefore, he was able to be scheduled on an outpatient, non-emergency basis.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Pentagon press secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder defended the use of &#8220;elective surgery&#8221; in a Tuesday press briefing, deferring to medical professionals.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m going to defer to medical officials on this,&#8221; Ryder said. &#8220;Again, we released this information as soon as we had it. And so, again, I&#8217;m going to refer back to the statement and, you know, going forward, we will use that as the baseline in terms of describing it.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/media\/pelosi-says-lloyd-austin-hospitalization-could-have-been-handled-much-better-biden-should-have-known\"><strong>PELOSI SAYS LLOYD AUSTIN HOSPITALIZATION \u2018COULD HAVE BEEN HANDLED MUCH BETTER\u2019: BIDEN \u2018SHOULD HAVE KNOWN&#8217;<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Ryder said <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/us\/mayo-clinic-doctor-charged-murdering-wife-poisoned-after-open-relationship-failed-documents\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">that Austin&#8217;s doctor<\/a> previously defined his surgery as elective and the initial statement from the Pentagon was written after consulting his doctors at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;So to my knowledge, that initial statement was coordinated in consultation with his doctors,&#8221; Ryder said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Following Austin&#8217;s surgery, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/category\/health\/healthy-living\/health-care\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">he was hospitalized<\/a> following &#8220;complications,&#8221; Ryder said on Friday, Jan. 5.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/media\/defense-secretary-austin-under-fire-washington-post-keeping-america-dark-hospitalization\"><strong>DEFENSE SECREATARY AUSTIN UNDER FIRE FROM WASHINGTON POST FOR KEEPING AMERICA \u2018IN THE DARK\u2019 ON HOSPITALIZATION<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mike Rogers on Tuesday announced a formal inquiry into the lack of transparency surrounding Austin&#8217;s hospitalization.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;With wars in Ukraine and Israel, the idea that the White House and even your own Deputy did not understand the nature of your condition is patently unacceptable,&#8221; Rogers wrote in a letter to Austin on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>Seigel said that Austin should use this experience as a &#8220;great teaching moment&#8221; and bring public awareness <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/category\/health\/cancer\/prostate-cancer\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">to prostate cancer<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This should have been a great teaching moment and still could be for Black Americans, given the fact that they have 2.5 times greater risk of prostate cancer and 2.5 greater chances of dying,&#8221; Siegel said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I would have liked to see the defense secretary come out for public awareness rather than hide&#8211; and he still could,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/politics\/white-house-launching-review-cabinet-protocols-defense-secretary-secret-hospitalization-memo\"><strong>WHITE HOUSE LAUNCHING REVIEW OF CABINET PROTOCOLS AFTER DEFENSE SECRETARY&#8217;S HOSPITALIZATION: MEMO<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Austin was admitted to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on Dec. 22 and underwent surgery to treat the cancer. He developed the infection a week later.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/category\/person\/joe-biden\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Biden and other<\/a> senior administration officials were not told for days about his hospitalization or his cancer.<\/p>\n<p>According to the doctors, the cancer was detected when Austin had a regular screening in early December.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>They said his prostate cancer was detected early, and his prognosis was excellent.<\/p>\n<p>The Pentagon did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital&#8217;s request for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Doctors are calling out the Pentagon for calling Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin&#8217;s recent medical procedure to treat prostrate cancer an &#8220;elective&#8221; surgery,&#8221; saying that characterization is misleading. The 70-year-old Defense secretary was hospitalized on Jan. 1 for complications from what officials are still calling an &#8220;elective&#8221; medical procedure that was later revealed to be related &#8230; <a title=\"Pentagon slammed for calling Lloyd Austin&#8217;s surgery to remove cancer &#8216;elective&#8217;: &#8216;Arguing semantics&#8217;\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/2024\/01\/10\/pentagon-slammed-for-calling-lloyd-austins-surgery-to-remove-cancer-elective-arguing-semantics\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Pentagon slammed for calling Lloyd Austin&#8217;s surgery to remove cancer &#8216;elective&#8217;: &#8216;Arguing semantics&#8217;\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1022","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1022","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1022"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1022\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}