Keeping Up With The Mosses

It seems that Kate Moss has pretty much finished the alterations she’s making to her house that will make her a neighbour of Bad Boys singer, George Michael (do ya like my tabloid-speak? No? OK, I’ll stop).  It begs the question, how can George keep up with his new neighbours?

George’s enforced hiatus from touring and making music as he recovers from his recent illness gives him an excellent opportunity to put his architects and interior designers to work on making some improvements to his home.   What could he add? Perhaps a swimming pool in the basement?  Or what about a adding a second underground level to the house to  garage the Ferrari 458 Spider (and his other cars) that George needs to consider putting his deposit down for this year if he wants it to be ready to collect when his driving ban ends (BTW George, you can spec the 458 here)?

If you have any thoughts on building projects to keep George occupied for the next few months, please submit your suggestions in the comments section for this post.

Welcome Back George!

George Michael has been discharged from hospital in Vienna and is back home in London. He just spoke to the media outside his home. Understandably, he was emotional when speaking about how grateful he is to everyone that did such a great job of saving his life in hospital.

He looked very well, but is clearly going to be weak after spending such a long time in hospital.  Great to see him back on his feet, though, and so clearly on the road to recovery.

Welcome back, George, and have a great Christmas!

30 November Official Update – George Improving

A new official update on the health of George Michael, currently in hospital in Vienna, has been released today (Wed 30 Nov) by the hospital in Vienna that is treating him.  The statement is from two senior clinicians at the hospital. It is clear from this that the reporting and speculation in the media, and among commenters on newspaper web-sites, has been without foundation.  To be clear:

• There is no heart damage.
• He does not have HIV/AIDS.
• There is no risk to his voice from being on a ventilator.

He has pneumonia, and that is all (and that’s really bad enough, by the way). I think it’s significant that the doctors have called George’s recent recovery  “impressive” – they wouldn’t say that if they didn’t believe it.

The update, directly from the hospital, is given below:

Professors Gottfried Locker and Christoph Zielinski would like to make a statement regarding George Michael.

Further to our previous statement Mr. Michael is being treated here for pneumonia and nothing else.

The latest development in Mr. Michael’s case – which has evolved from a severe pneumococcal infection – necessitated intensive care due to its severity and extension. We are happy to announce that Mr Michael is improving steadily with an impressive regression of pneumonic symptoms and follows a steady rate of improvement as hoped.

There are no other health issues with regards to the patient other than the underlying pneumonic disorder, and no further measures had to be taken.

Mr. Michael is receiving precisely the same treatment as any ordinary patient in Austria would receive at the hospital for this disease.

As we said previously, complete rest and peace and quiet are mandatory.

We wish to make it clear that we are putting this statement out and there will be no further comment.

 

Official Statement From George’s Medical Team

Yesterday, George Michael’s management  put out a press release announcing the cancellation of the remaining dates of his Symphonica tour. The press release included a quote from senior members of the medical team responsible for treating George’ in Vienna.  This is the relevant section of the press release:

Prof. Dr. Christoph Zielinski, Chairman, Department of Medicine General Hospital – Medical University Vienna, Austria and Prof. Dr. Thomas Staudinger, Specialist in Internal Medicine and Intensive Care Medicine have stated the following:

“George Michael has severe community acquired pneumonia and is being treated as an inpatient. His condition has stabilized and he is responding to treatment. From the current point of view, the time until recovery cannot be estimated, but he will not be able to perform the rest of the tour. Besides medical treatment, complete rest and peace and quiet are mandatory.”

This is an important statement because these clinicians have no interest in being quoted as saying anything other than the truth. There has been a lot of speculation about George’s illness in the press. So, what does this statement tell us about the facts of George’s condition? In short, I think it’s probably good news.

Let’s take each sentence in turn, and see what we can glean…

George Michael has severe community acquired pneumonia and is being treated as an inpatient.

The primary condition George is suffering from is “severe CAP”. This is a serious illness, and treatment has required him to be hospitalized. What is the prognosis for this condition? From Wikipedia,

Fever typically responds in the first two days of therapy and other symptoms resolve in the first week. The x-ray, however, may remain abnormal for at least a month, even when CAP has been successfully treated. Among individuals who require hospitalization, the mortality rate averages 12% overall, but is as much as 40% in people who have bloodstream infections or require intensive care.

It should be noted that while the statement does not explicitly say that George has required intensive care, it’s clear that he has. That’s because part of the definition of “severe” CAP is that the patient requires admission to an ICU. That said, there is not enough information in this sentence to make any sensible assessment of just how serious George’s illness is/has been.

The next sentence in the official statement is,

His condition has stabilized and he is responding to treatment.

Here, the clinicians describe George’s state as “stable”. It’s unclear exactly what they mean by this. However, we can certainly infer the following. Whatever his condition has been previously, George is not currently getting worse.  Previously, though, his condition has been unstable.  They also say that George is responding to treatment. Again, it’s unclear exactly what they mean, but it does suggest that his condition is improving. They say nothing about how quickly he’s improving, though.

Now, the next sentence,

From the current point of view, the time until recovery cannot be estimated, but he will not be able to perform the rest of the tour.

Here, they are saying that, based on his current condition, they have no idea how long it will take him to recover, but the time will be months not weeks.  However, the most important thing about this sentence is that it sounds like they expect that he will recover (I hope I’m not reading too much into that). In other words, it sounds to me like they do not currently consider George’s life to be at serious risk.

The final sentence in the statement is,

Besides medical treatment, complete rest and peace and quiet are mandatory.

Here, they are letting everyone (friends, management, fans, media) not to expect too much in the way of communication from George for the moment. In other words, they want him left alone. Certainly, they won’t want him spending any time at all thinking/worrying about his work.

That’s it, then. The statement reveals very little detail about George’s illness or the nature of the treatment George has been receiving. It says nothing about any complications that have arisen as a result of the pneumonia. In summary, it sounds very much like George has been critically ill in the last few days with a serious risk that he could have died, and that he remains very ill at present. The signs are positive that he will make a recovery, however, but it will probably take a few months.  Fingers crossed the worst is behind him…

George Michael Taken Ill

Information at this time (7.30pm UK time, Wed 23 Nov) is sketchy. However, news reports are saying that George Michael has been admitted to hospital with suspected pneumonia and heart problems.  There is no getting away from the fact that this is potentially very serious. As yet, though, there has been no official statement about George’s condition (Update: the heart problem reports are incorrect according to George’s UK publicist). Update: The good news is – some of George’s friends on Twitter (Shirlie and Martin Kemp) have been saying positive things about George’s condition. So, for the moment, let’s just hope that all George needs to make a full recovery is a good long rest.

Currently, only George’s shows up to this weekend have been cancelled. If he has pneumonia, it will really wipe him out, and I’d imagine that all the shows until Christmas will have to be cancelled too. (Update Friday evening – all the remaining shows have indeed been cancelled)

Update – Thursday

Reports suggest that George is responding well to treatment, has been discharged from hospital, and is now recovering in a private house in Vienna. If true, that sounds like very good news.

Update – Friday

The latest reports in the media are conflicting both each other, and with yesterday’s reports. Some suggest George has “woken up” in hospital and is in good spirits. Others suggest he’s in intensive care being treated for both pneumonia and serious heart problems. Others are saying that George will be back on stage at the beginning of next week.  It’s impossible to tell which, if any, of these reports are correct. The only thing we can be sure of is that at least some of them are wrong, and it looks to me like some are disingenuous.

Update – Friday Afternoon

The press reports coming out of Vienna are very bad indeed. However, there is no way of knowing if they’re accurate. Meanwhile, ContactMusic has quoted an official representative for George as saying today that George’s condition is not life threatening.