Archbishop Christodoulos, Greece's Orthodox Church leader, is seen in this file photo on Sept. 17, 1999. Doctors at a state hospital diagnosed Christodoulos with cancer.
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Greek Orthodox archbishop preparing self for liver transplant
Posted on Wed Sep 19 2007
South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com
by LISA ORKIN EMMANUEL
MAMI --
Archbishop Christodoulos, the Greek Orthodox Church's leader, has been getting himself physically and mentally ready for his upcoming liver transplant by exercising and watching his diet, his surgeon said Wednesday.
Christodoulos, 68, has a cancerous tumor on his liver and had been previously diagnosed with cancer in his large intestines. But the disease currently appears to be confined to his liver, said Dr. Andreas Tzakis.
He has been in Miami for about a month waiting for the liver transplant and Tzakis, the director of the University of Miami's organ transplant institute, said the operation should occur ``very soon.''
He said the right organ has yet to be found, but he said Christodoulos' condition was critical. Doctors must find a donor who died and had the right blood type and organ size, he said.
Christodoulos is in good spirits and is keeping up with his obligations in Greece as well, Tzakis said.
``The archbishop is doing fine. Considering everything that he has he is doing excellent. He is working very hard to prepare himself mentally and physically for the transplant,'' Tzakis said.
Tzakis said his team performs about 200 liver transplants a year and that 5 percent of them go to foreigners. He said Christodoulos was not getting any special treatment.
``It's a procedure that has been done for many years for this type of a cancer,'' Tzakis said. ``We hope that by removing the cancer, we will give him an opportunity to live a normal or normal length of life.''
Elected church leader in 1998, Christodoulos has occasionally stirred controversy with politically tinged statements. He missed Greece's elections Sunday and the Cabinet was sworn in during a ceremony led by Metropolitan Prokopios, who stood in for Christodoulos.
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Prosefhometha gia tin tahian epanaforan tis ygias sas.O Theos na sas syntdrofevi ke na ine dipla sas Me agonia perimenome ta efharista nea gia mia kali metamoshepsi.Kouragio ke ypomoni .Tha ginete kala ke grigora tha sas doume stin patrida mas.Dionisios ke Athena Pletsas
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