arghton

Zhang Lixiong and Steve McMichael both seem very good examples of how much a life can be prolonged because family can't let go. Back in November Zhang's family thanked his medical team for "bringing him back multiple times during the last year" For context he is 110 years old, has been in hospital nearly continuously for three years on oxygen and nasogastric tube. There's an 2017 video somewhere on Weibo where he says he's forgotten a massive portion of his life including the names of most of his friends and family and he's afraid of forgetting even more. I can't decide which is worse, Mongo being lucid in his condition (that is only ever going to get worse) and undergoing surgeries, resuscitation or Zhang being an empty shell and having different tubes inserted into him.

Acharya Vidyasagar, Indian Digambar Jain monk and possibly the most prominent Jain leader, dead at 77. Cause of death mentioned Sallekhana - fasted to death. Correct me if I'm wrong, but are there only two Jain leaders aged over 75 with a Wiki page - Gyanmati Mataji and Ratnasundarsuri? Edit: There's also British Jain monk/pacifist Satish Kumar (87) and Indian nun/guru Acharya Chandana (86). Sallekhana doesn't seem very common, unlikely any of these four will die that way.

Chinese comfort woman "Grandma Ouyang" dead at 96.

Alleged image of Abdul Taib taken a few days ago: One of the greatest kleptocrats of our time. It'll be interesting to see what'll happen to his billions.

Fernando Lugo hospitalised with serious health issue but already out of ICU.

Nancy Valverde was in hospice with terminal cancer in May. Most recent interview in October when she was on oxygen. I'm also quite suprised Sebreli is still alive. He had severe covid in Aug 2020 while recovering from a hip surgery (and has looked frail for decades)

Imelda Marcos and Joseph Estrada at his birthday party, a couple of hours ago. All three seem to be doing fine considering their past health problems...

Wilson Fittipaldi, isn't he still in hospital? Otherwise I have no interesting names to add. Russian comedian Yevgeny Petrosyan is in "deteriorating condition" according to some reports by the Russian media but we all know how reliable they are. And three of my Finnish names...Juhani Palmu of course, but also social media celeb Pappa (has been hospitalised for a week atleast, suffers from mixed dementia and other ailments) and left wing member of parliament Kari Uotila who has been in hospital for 2 weeks now with "unknown illness", but is improving.

Article on second-oldest cardinal Estanislao Esteban Karlic, now 98. His mobility has gotten worse and his memory is failing but when doing consecration he's still "always fully lucid". It's also mentioned that he survived a fall and cancer in 2017. Edit: I missed this one, Panama Cardinal José Luis Lacunza disappeared some weeks ago, but has now returned and it was "just a prank".

Looks a bit worse today, but well enough to communicate.

Marcel Niat Njifenji, President of the Senate of Cameroon, rumored seriously ill or already dead and has not been seen since November. I think it's very likely he's currently in some French hospital. The article also mentions rumors going around that Michel Meva'a Meboutou is in ill health. He's the Secretary General of the Senate and former Minister of Finance and had a five-month hospitalisation last year.

Yusuf Gowon, Idi Amin's Chief of Staff and at one point his right-hand man, reportedly dead from heart failure.

Sir Julius Chan, former Papua New Guinea prime minister a few days ago: He had another hospitalisation last year (collapse, possibly a stroke?), rumored dead atleast three times in recent years and regularly misses events due to health reasons. To my suprise he's still serving as Governor of New Ireland, whatever that is. He's also according to Wikipedia the 15th-longest serving member of the British privy council. The list is quite interesting, tons of good pool possibilities: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_current_members_of_the_British_Privy_Council

On facebook he was praised as at 100 still strong, intelligent, helpful, agile, thoughtful etc. Of course none of that is true but he's definitely still alive and people in his condition can live god knows how long, see Võ Nguyên Giáp, Zsa Zsa, Vajirañāṇasaṃvara, Dilip Kumar, Leslie Phillips, Sheikh Salem Al-Ali, Tu Tongjin, Zhang Lixiong, Violeta Chamorro, others...

No new images anywhere. There's even an image of a birthday cake for him on facebook but Siphandone is nowhere to be seen. His two successors were well enough to receive visits & pose for images late last month. Ages 87 and 86, but both look like they're going to make 90+. Also, Lt. Gen Ai Suriyaseng (ໄອ່ ສຸລິຍະແສງ, I believe he's Ai Soulignaseng on Wikipedia, former Cent'l Committee member who retired in 1996) who's 95 or 96 was visited. I'll give it until tomorrow evening considering that birthday event his wife attended was apparently held yesterday. If there's no news by then, he's very likely very ill.

Tep Vong on oxygen. He doesn't look as bad as he looked last month...yet. Also, Bun Rany had a brief fall + head injury hospitalisation at the same place recently. Still rumored to be very ill.

Cuban old guard at an event a week ago: José Ramón Machado Ventura (93), Guillermo García Frías (95), Ramiro Valdés Menéndez (91), and Raul Castro (92). García Frías looked half-dead and froze for multiple minutes (there are videos online) the others still seem, unfortunately, very well for men in their 90s.

Still not fucking dead but Juhani Palmu hospitalised and on oxygen with bladder cancer, fever, pneumonia and apparent internal hemorrhage.

Yosam Odur Ebii, 94-year-old Ugandan Chief of the Lango people, hospitalised but now out of danger. Edit: Commenting on the above post, Zhang Lixiong making it through another year would be a true miracle. Suffering from advanced dementia and other ailments he was in ICU for most of 2023, the only reason he's still alive is that he's got a 20+ person medical team willing to do anything to subdue the inevitable at his use due to him being a Major General. Unfortunately I doubt Zhang would obit. There is so much to say about him, long articles online about his life (in Chinese) but nearly zero previous mentions in English-language news...When Major General Tu Tongjin died last year at 108 the only English source to report it was a/the neurosurgery medical journal despite WSJ and LA Times having written articles on him in 2008! Tu wasn't as known in China as Zhang, but outside China I believe probably more or less 50 people have ever heard of Zhang. Of course someone here could always try emailing the Times or Guardian about a 110-year-old politician& veteran of a war that ended 89 years ago.

I've updated the list... I think the oldest notable Berber personality is now Mohamed Chafik, 97. From the list, one (excluding Sheikh Salem, Abdoulaye Wade etc) I am especially impressed is still alive is Syrian Muslim Brotherhood leader Issam al-Attar. He was gravely ill for months between 2019 and 2020 and in ICU again in May 2020.

Chad Morgan, according to his website can barely perform anymore due to arthritis (and the other two million ailments he has), had to cancel concerts last year on doctors orders and according to his site a "farewell concert" will be held in April.

Yaakov Moshe Hillel, Israeli Kabbalist rabbi is in critical condition with a liver disease. Urgent tefillos asked. Not to be confused with Moshe Hillel Hirsch who was in serious condition last year.

Here we fucking go again. His Holiness Jayapataka Swami's lungs (and other parts of his body) have filled with water because his transplant kidneys aren't functioning: He was still able to host an evening class today. How he isn't affected by any of these extreme health problems anymore makes no sense to me.

Tep Vong (currently a Cup pick, by the way) back in hospital and there's a patient monitor on in one of the images.

That's a great idea. I'm introducing to these forums Swarabguru Bajarpraktiyayaoabha, Bangladeshi Hindu leader born 1929 who's been suffering from octogenic premarital leukemia since the 1980s and Mufti Muhammad Al-Hadi Alhaylaab-Al-Islam, North Kenyan sunni islamic godman, statistician & professional coffee brewer born 1937. Jokes aside, Rambhad...whateverhisnameis has been on my radar for a few months, last month I dedicated a post to him in the birthday thread. A religious leader, musician, educator, poet, composer and grammarian who can speak 22 languages and is considered a saint. Blind since he was two months old. Founder of Tulsi Peeth and author of Shriraghavkripabhashyam and Srisitaramasuprabhatam. My imagination isn't enough to make even half of all that up. Wikipedia suprisingly has a lot of articles dedicated to him, atleast "Timeline of Rambhadracharya", "List of awards and honours received by Rambhadracharya" and "Works of Rambhadracharya". They are all as interesting to read as the 17000 words dedicated to Lisa Murkowski's political views.