Conservative author, columnist, and TV commentator Charles Krauthammer announced Friday that doctors have given him just weeks left to live, as his cancer has returned after what he hoped was a successful operation.
“That operation was thought to have been a success, but it caused a cascade of secondary complications — which I have been fighting in hospital ever since,” he wrote in a statement. “It was a long and hard fight with many setbacks, but I was steadily, if slowly, overcoming each obstacle along the way and gradually making my way back to health.”
Fox News’ Chris Wallace holds back tears while talking about failing health of Charles Krauthammer pic.twitter.com/e9TULcDC7k
— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) June 8, 2018
“However, recent tests have revealed that the cancer has returned,” Krauthammer wrote. “There was no sign of it as recently as a month ago, which means it is aggressive and spreading rapidly. My doctors tell me their best estimate is that I have only a few weeks left to live.”
“This is the final verdict. My fight is over,” Krauthammer added.
In an open letter to readers published at the Washington Post, where Krauthammer is a columnist, he said that he has been undergoing treatment for what was a cancerous tumor found in his abdomen, and for which he had surgery for last August.
Krauthammer thanked his doctors, family and readers in the letter.
“I leave this life with no regrets,” He wrote. “It was a wonderful life — full and complete with the great loves and great endeavors that make it worth living. I am sad to leave, but I leave with the knowledge that I lived the life that I intended.”
The Washington Post said editorial board said lamented the loss, writing, “We know we speak for many of you when we say that nothing and no one can replace him.”
Chris Wallace, the anchor at Fox News, where Krauthammer was a contributor, said in a tribute to him, “I want you to know that I love you” and described him as “a great man.”
Rupert Murdoch, executive chairman of Fox, said in a statement that “Charles has been a profound source of personal and intellectual inspiration for all of us at Fox News” and that “his words, his ideas, his dignity and his integrity will resonate within our society and within me for many, many years to come.”
[Opinion: Charles Krauthammer’s mark]
