Victor Yushchenko

Here's an interesting story by Glenn Kessler and Rob Stein from The Washington Post on Victor Yushchenko's bout with dioxin poisoining. For anyone not up on the story, Victor Yushchenko is the current President of Ukraine who was posioned via dioxin during his run against Victor Yanakovech. Though there are some individuals in Ukraine still argue that Yushchenko contracted this posion naturally, It's very hard not to agree that the Ukrainian President was targeted for death by someone. According to the Post article, Yushchenko's attempted assassination was enough to garner the attention of his family, who secretly requested the aid of US doctors via the Pentagon and the State Department.

Luckily, Yushchenko's family had the forethought to call in this team of doctors. Since the unique symptoms of Yushchenko's illness were beyond the expertise of his doctors in Vienna, the future president was lucky that the Americans arrived. To fully understand the situation, just read part of the fascinating article below:

"They didn't want it to be known it was being done in the United States because a major part of the campaign against him was anti-Americanism," McConnell said. The CIAG, located within U-Va.'s School of Medicine, is a think tank that focuses on helping the public and government respond to emergencies. Saathoff said he organized a team of about six U.S. doctors in various specialties, including dermatology, neurology, toxicology and neuroradiology. He would not name the other doctors, except for the toxicologist -- Christopher Holstege of U-Va.

After reviewing Yushchenko's records with the help of interpreters from U-Va.'s language department, Holstege said he sent an e-mail to Saathoff on Oct. 31, in which he said dioxin was at the top of his list of culprits. "It's not every day that you're asked to evaluate someone of this stature. It's probably the poisoning of the century," he said.

In December, Saathoff, Holstege and another doctor traveled to Vienna to meet Yushchenko and consult with his doctors. During the trip, Holstege's diagnosis was confirmed by a lab in the Netherlands.

Dioxins are organic compounds that contain chlorine and are a byproduct in the manufacture of many industrial chemicals. Zimpfer said the Dutch lab determined that the level of dioxin in Yushchenko's blood was greater than 100,000 picograms per gram of fat; he said the maximum tolerable level is believed to be about 30 picograms. A picogram is one-trillionth of a gram.

Even throughout this great ordeal, Victor Yushchenko has suffered a severe bout of pain as well as disfigurement. Just see the following picture.


While this might sound cruel, I think Yushchenko's face is a badge of honor providing a great testament of his bravery. As you know, while Yushchenko was battling for his health, the people in the streets of Kiev were battling the corrupt government and its forces via the Orange Revolution. One thing I can say is that no matter how much the forces of evil put up against the forces of good, the forces of good prevailed.