Joe Haldeman, credit: Mikko Aarnio
Award-winning science fiction author Joe Haldeman was hospitalised this week for a twisted bowel and has severe pancreatitis, his wife has revealed.
Posting on the SFF.net forums, Gay Haldeman first revealed the bad news several days ago on 22 September, saying the author had had “pretty extensive surgery” in Cincinnati in the US after having bad abdominal pains. Haldeman was in the intensive care unit (ICU), his wife revealed, “doing well, but not yet out of the woods”.
Yesterday, on 23 September, Gay Haldeman posted her husband was still in the ICU unit and “critically stable”. Further details:
“The surgeon just told me that Joe’s blood count was coming down and the pancreatic enzymes were better than yesterday. Lab stuff looks better. He’s still running a fever of about 102 that doesn’t want to come down. He’ll probably be on the respirator for a few more days to rest and recover. His bowel has begun working, one of the serious hurdles for this kind of surgery. He’s getting IV nutrition and they’re keeping him sedated (yay).”
Further details are available on the SFF.net forum thread created for discussing Haldeman’s health. Some fellow authors, such as Vonda N. Macintyre, have posted wishing Haldeman and his wife the best.
Haldeman is 66 years old and is best known for his 1976 novel The Forever War, which won both the Hugo and Nebula Awards, although he has published many more books since, including Forever Peace, which although not a direct sequel, has some similarities to The Forever War, and also won both the Nebula and Hugo Awards. His most recent book is 2008′s Marsbound, which Keeping the Door reviewed here.
Commentary
This sort of event is never pleasant in anybody’s life, and I wishes to pass on my best wishes to Haldeman and his family. I hope they realise how many lives Haldeman’s work has affected and how many fans are wishing him well.
Very sad. Forever War is one of my favorite books. Good luck Joe.
Me too re The Forever War … I remember reading it when I was a teenager, it really affected me. Then I read some of his other books over the past few years, including Forever Peace. His prose is easy to get into but has depths to discover; a hallmark of a great.
Wishing the best for one of our sci-fi masters.
Hopefully all will turn out on the bright side. I suggest that they proscribe Creon for him. My daughter has a problem with her pancreas and was taking major (methadone) pain killers until the 5th doc we found proscribe the Creon. Take one or two pills just before eating anything (or drinking something thicker than water) and it tells the pancreas to not release any enzymes. Pain went away within a week. Hasn’t had any problems for 8 months.