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Canada: Ford Is Hospitalized With Possible Tumor Toronto Mayor in Hospital With an Abdominal Tumor
(about 4 hours later)
A Toronto hospital said the city’s mayor, Rob Ford, had been admitted after doctors diagnosed a possible tumor. The mayor, who participated in an addiction treatment program in the summer after admitting to using crack cocaine and being frequently out of control while drunk, had had abdominal pain for about three months, the statement from Humber River Hospital said. The pain worsened over the past 24 hours, prompting him to visit an emergency room on Wednesday, the hospital said. Mr. Ford, who is campaigning for re-election next month, did not appear to be in pain on Tuesday during a public debate. OTTAWA — After more than a year of political turmoil punctuated by his admission of crack cocaine use and drunken escapades, Mayor Rob Ford of Toronto was admitted to a hospital on Wednesday after learning that he had an abdominal tumor.
The mayor’s hospitalization will have little effect on the operation of Toronto, Canada’s largest city. Last fall, the City Council stripped Mr. Ford of all but ceremonial powers after he admitted to smoking crack, a confession preceded by months of denial. Yet like his two-month stay in a drug and alcohol rehabilitation program earlier this year, Mr. Ford’s admission to a hospital has prevented him from actively campaigning for re-election in a vote to be held next month.
Dr. Rueben Devlin, the chief executive of the Humber River Hospital, told reporters during a brief news conference on Wednesday night that a biopsy and other tests would be needed to identify the tumor, which is in the lower left quadrant of Mr. Ford’s abdomen, a process likely to take until the end of this week.
He added that a CT scan revealed that “it wasn’t a small tumor, but the size isn’t as relative as what it is.”
Doug Ford, Rob Ford’s eldest brother and a member of the City Council, said the mayor complained of abdominal pain when they had breakfast together on Wednesday. The mayor then went to a family physician who, in turn, sent him to the hospital’s emergency department, Doug Ford said at the news conference.
Rob Ford, 45, has been in pain for about three months, Dr. Devlin said, adding that “today it became unbearable for him.”
Doug Ford appeared shaken as he told reporters that his brother was in “good spirits.” Doug Ford Sr., the father of the men and a former provincial politician, died at the age of 73 in 2006 from colon cancer.
In 2009, The Toronto Sun, a newspaper then friendly to Rob Ford, a councilor at the time, reported he underwent a two-hour emergency operation to remove a tumor on his appendix. Mr. Ford told the newspaper at the time that he felt “excruciating” abdominal pain before the surgery, but added that he did not know if the tumor, which he said had spread to his colon, was malignant.
Although Mr. Ford visibly lost weight during his recent rehabilitation program, he remains overweight and has been troubled by asthma, which contributed to at least one hospital stay.
Dr. Devlin said that until the tumor was identified, it was impossible to offer a prognosis for Mr. Ford or to indicate what sort of treatment would be required.
There was no indication from Doug Ford that his brother would withdraw from the mayoral race. He also declined to answer questions about whether he now plans to step in as the family’s substitute candidate.