Friday, March 27, 2009

Wilt Chamberlain, root canal treatment, dental implants and heart attack

Wilt Chamberlain: Re root canals, dental implants and death by heart attack

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http://bbs.hoopchina.com/simple/index.php?t87040.html

In late September or early October 1999, Wilt underwent root-canal surgery to try to save two teeth, but the effort was unsuccessful. In a short time the teeth were hanging by tissue and had to be removed. Wilt decided to get implants.
On Wednesday, October 6, Wilt underwent the first stage of the tooth-implant procedure in which a metal fixture is inserted into the jawbone, upper or lower. While Wilt was, in Lynda huey's words, "a world-class complainer,"
he didn't normally complain about his health---infact, he wouldn't even let certain people broach the subject to him, the category into which Huey acknowledged she fell.
But after the dental surgery on that Wendnesday, Wilt called Goldberg about 6:00 p.m. and told him he was having the worst pain he had ever experi-enced."This was something he had never done," Goldberg said."He was impervious to pain--- Goliath didn't hurt." Wilt also called his sister Barbara, according to Goldberg, and told her the same thing. Zelda Spoelstra remembers his call to her,too,at that time:"When he called me almost crying from the pain, that will always stay with me," she remarked.
On the night of Thursday, October 7, Spoelstra called Wilt. He told her he wasn"t feeling any better and"couldn't even lift a fork."
On Friday, October 8, Wilt saw his cardiologist and agreed to an operation to insert a pacemaker, something medical people had urged him to do for some time, according to Goldberg.Wilt called Spoelstra later that day to tell her he was getting a pacemaker, although she wonders if Wilt did that just to tell her something that he knew she wanted to her.
On Saturday, October 9, Wilt was tired and weak and was not eating. The man with the magnificent physique was wasting away.
Wilt's sister Barbara had been with him more than usual during these last difficult weeks. His sister Selena had come from New Jersey to spell Barbara, but Selena had returned to the East Coast by October 9, Barbara went over to Wilt's home that Saturday and cooked him chicken and dumplings, his favorite meal, the dish his mother used to prepare for him at their West Philadelphia home so many years before. Wilt didn't touch it.
Later that evening, Lynda Huey arrived. Barbara and her husband, Elzie Lewis, left. Huey remembered that Wilt, whom many consider not only one of the strongest people who ever lived, could barely make it up the stairs and stand by himself at the top. She lay with him in his bed, and they watched a movie- an activity they had done many times in that house over the course of 28 years. The roof-the famous retractable roof-was open, and Huey recalled that a gentle breeze caressed them. She wrapped her arms around Wilt to comfort him, braced for him to brush her off, but this time he did not, she remarked. She left him saying,"Feel better, Wiltie."
The next day, Sunday, October 10, Wilt spoke by Telephone to Carl Green, an ex-Globetrotter buddy who lived in New York.
On Tuesday, Joe Mendoza, Wilt's gardener for more than 16 years, was working on the property, and around noon, when he hadn't seen any signs of Wilt, he went into the house, where he found Wilt upstairs in bed. The gardener called 911 and then phoned Sy Goldberg, who happened to be driving nearby in his car. Mendoza told Goldberg that at first he thought Wilt was sleeping, but soon realized something was wrong. Goldberg rushed over to the house, arriving within 15 minutes, by which time paramedics were already there. But there was nothing they could do:at 12:41p.m., on Tuseday, October 12,1999, the Los Angeles Fire Department paramedics pronounced Wilt Chamberlain dead.
He was 63.
He had died alone, just as, by his choice, he had been alone during much of his life.
Sy Goldberg observed that no one had spoken to Wilt after his telephone conversation with Carl Green that Sunday and that when Wilt's body was found, the roof in his bedroom was still open-leading Goldberg to conclude that his dear friend had probably died at some point Sunday evening because Wilt always closed the roof during the daylight hours.
What was the cause of Wilt's death? The answer is open to speculation because no autopsy was conducted. It was, without question, not related to AIDS, as some ignorant and malicious people have stated. The certificate of death,
signed by Dr. Anthony Reid, Wilt's cardiologist, states wilt died of congestive heart failure and related cardiac disorders. There could be other medical problems that contributed to his death but, as Goldberg pointed out, no one was interested in pursuing the question of what actually caused it."For what purpose?"Goldberg asked, implying that investigations would not bring Wilt back.
by Robert Cherry.
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http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/basketball/nba/news/1999/10/12/wilt_health_ap/

Chamberlain recently underwent dental surgery to remove teeth knocked aside during his basketball career, said his sister, Barbara Lewis. He had dropped about 50 pounds in the last month, she said.

"He said it was the worst pain. I never heard him complain about pain ever," she said during a news conference. "He said he felt worse than he ever did Saturday. He looked worse than I have ever seen him."

"He did have some problems and we think at this point it may have been a heart attack that did him in," Sy Goldberg, Chamberlain's lawyer, said.
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http://static.espn.go.com/nba/news/1999/1012/110895.html

It's too early to determine what caused the former basketball star's death Tuesday, but heart problems compounded by stress can be fatal, said Jaime Moriguchi, co-director of the clinical heart failure program at UCLA.
Chamberlain recently underwent dental surgery to remove teeth knocked aside during his basketball career, said his sister, Barbara Lewis. He had dropped about 50 pounds in the last month, she said.
"He said it was the worst pain. I never heard him complain about pain ever," she said during a news conference. "He said he felt worse than he ever did Saturday. He looked worse than I have ever seen him."
"He did have some problems and we think at this point it may have been a heart attack that did him in," said Sy Goldberg, Chamberlain's lawyer.
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http://static.espn.go.com/nba/news/1999/1012/110493.html

Wilt Chamberlain's agent Sy Goldberg said Wednesday that the Hall of Famer died of congestive heart failure, and for about a month, doctors had been draining his legs of fluid that had accumulated because of the heart problem.

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

George E. Meinig, DDS, FACD
(2 September 1914 - 2 May 2008)

16 May 2008

George E. Meinig, best known internationally for his book "Root Canal Cover-Up", passed away on 2 May 2008 at the age of 93. Up through even the prior week, we had continued to collaborate on a follow-up joint book project, tentatively titled “Root Canal Time Bomb – Roots of Cancer”.

Some 65 years had passed since he was invited to become a founding member of the American Association of Endodontists (AAE). Thus his charge in recent years of a “cover-up” of facts concerning hazards of root canal treatments cannot be taken lightly. These facts had indeed been submerged from his view through all his years of dental education and practice and beyond, even up to the present time. In making this charge, he parted ways with those very professional organizations and colleagues with whom he had shared a long and distinguished professional life – because the facts of the situation demanded it.

Without detracting from the great efforts and accomplishments of Weston Price and others early in the 20th Century, circumstances greeting George Meinig's involvement at the end of the century were uniquely difficult. By then debate over systemic effects of infected teeth was muted, seemingly whispered as quasi-heresy, and root canal treatments had become firmly ensconced as common practice. Moreover, he took on what he truly felt was his personal responsibility at a relatively advanced age, at his own expense, and with far more opposition than support. Nonetheless he has indeed succeeded in taking a big and irreversible step toward bringing this long-buried fundamental issue to the attention of the world -- as particularly embodied in the achievement of publication in the Japanese language.

There is no health-related issue facing the world today that is more fundamental than the interface between the domains of dentistry and medicine. And there is no book published in modern times that strikes so directly and deeply, as does "Root Canal Cover-Up", at the entrenched orthodoxy that inhibits progress on this issue. George Meinig has thus achieved a unique position in the history of dentistry and medicine through the fortunate combination of his own professional history, his courage, and his personal integrity. His spirit and hunger for truth and knowledge will live forever as incomparable inspiration and light.

S. Hale Shakman, PhD
InstituteOfScience.com