Speculation on Victor Davis Hanson’s health problems
I’ve been a VDH fan for a long time, and the news that he’s been facing an enormous health challenge, including a major surgery, is concerning. Many people are offering prayers and good wishes for a full recovery, and I join them.
Because the news hasn’t included many details or a diagnosis, a lot of people are speculating on what disease Hanson may have. I join in the speculation here, despite my having no medical credentials whatsoever and no information other than what I read in the media. So take what I have to say with a huge caveat: it’s just a guess.
Much if not most of the speculation concerns various forms of cancer, but I’m offering another possibility: a severe case of sarcoidosis. I knew someone once who received that diagnosis, and so I’m mildly familiar with what it is.
Sarcoidosis fits some things that were said or already known about Hanson: lung symptoms can be prominent, it is a rare disease but more common in farmers (and Scandinavians, which I believe is Hanson’s ethnic background), and it is diagnosed by biopsy in many cases. Most people do not need surgery and mild cases may not even need treatment. But severe cases – in which lungs are damaged – can require lung surgery or even a lung transplant:
Sarcoidosis surgery isn’t a cure but is used for diagnosis (biopsies), treating severe complications like fungal balls (aspergilloma) or blockages, and, in rare, end-stage cases, organ transplantation (lungs, heart, liver) for life-threatening damage, significantly improving quality of life but carrying risks like infection or rejection. Procedures range from minimally invasive camera-assisted lung biopsies (VATS) to major surgeries, aiming to relieve symptoms or prevent further deterioration, especially when medications fail or organs are failing.
Hanson is older than the typical person diagnosed, and the illness is somewhat more common in women and he’s not a woman. As I said, this diagnostic possibility is totally speculative on my part.
I think it is also known as “Valley Fever,” from the Central Valley of California. Found in semi arid SW USA, a fungus among us. 🙁
I recall sarcoidosis as one of the go-to diagnoses when Dr. House and his team were brainstorming about a difficult medical case.
Sarcoidosis is not the same as Valley Fever. I have a spot on one lung, small, causes no trouble, never changes. I believe, and my doctor agreed, that it might be a small lesion left from an otherwise mild case of Valley Fever from my childhood in the Valley of the Sun (Phoenix).
https://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/valley-fever
Let’s hope Hanson doesn’t have Hansen’s disease.
Kate, indeed it isn’t, that’s the trouble with Dr. Google (or Dr. Ai) he ain’t reliable.
I have a friend, a Jewish woman who was dx’d with sarcoidosis when she was 60. After an initial hospital stay she’s kept it under control with medication.
Sarcoidosis is an entity apparently beloved by the medically ignorant. Which is surely evident here.
I did not know VDH was ill. But it ain’t sarcoidosis.
VDH had an emergency appendectomy in Gaddafi’s Libya in 2011. It could be some form of colon problem as a result of that. That’s just a guess but is based on my own experience.
I had an emergency appendectomy in 2005. In 2017 I was diagnosed with a bleeding lesion in my colon right where the appendix was attached. It was cancerous, but early stage. Had it removed and have been cancer free since. Colon surgery is a big deal, especially if the cancer has metastasized.
Here’s an interesting link with a bit more detail:
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Victor Davis Hanson avoided discussing his health condition, but revealed that it took nine months to get diagnosed….
“I don’t want to talk about my own problems, but I’ve had people call me and say, ‘You don’t look well, you’re hoarse, or you’re coughing.’ But it’s been a nine-month odyssey because the problem I had for a nonsmoker and nondrinker was a rare type and very hard to diagnose, so it’s no one’s fault other than my own perhaps for not realizing why I was not getting well”
https://www.primetimer.com/news/what-happened-to-victor-davis-hanson-2014-accident-and-more-health-struggles-explored-as-famed-author-reportedly-undergoing-major-operation-to-fix-major-problem
Although I appreciate a good deal of what Hanson writes and says, I also think he writes and says way too much. He routinely cranks out long chin-strokers about the contradictions and paradoxes in this or that. Some of them make me think he’s being paid by the word.
I do like the books of his that I’ve read, most notably 2003’s Mexifornia: A State of Becoming. It includes some actual reporting, based upon his experiences living in California’s Central Valley.
The late, esteemed blogger Lawrence Auster had an astringent take on Hanson — parallel to mine — from early on, notably expressed in a 2004 entry Victor Hanson: Liberal Universalist With A Gun: http://www.amnation.com/vfr/archives/002266.html
Other diagnoses to consider are some form of fungal disease or lymphoma
Well, since he spoke of his condition being rare for a non-smoker and non-drinker, we might consider illnesses usually associated with those behaviors. Hoarseness and coughing sound like lung problems.
Dr. Hansen is an American treasure. He has an encyclopedic memory for names, dates, places and the significance of every event in the history of Western Civilization. His literary output is prodigious and eclectic, from ancient Greece to modern California. Nothing he says can be dismissed as without support in the historical record. His personal story is likewise full to overflowing of momentous events and activities. My admiration for him has no bounds, and every complaint lodged against him that I am aware of is nothing more than a pure quibble. The complainers are like Lilliputians seeking to bind him with gossamer that he easisly bursts with facts and logic. His prescriptions for how to cure what ails contemporary America are unassailably correct. I hope and pray for his quick and full recovery. We can’t afford to lose many like him. And while on the topic of losing people, I am reminded that Scott Adams (not in the same category of Dr. Hansen, to be sure, but an interesting thinker and producer of voluminous and frequently quirky opinions on his internet channel) has announced that he is literally within days or weeks of passing. Yet he perseveres! Amazing.
The two people I’ve known with sarcoidosis are both men. One is doing well in his 70s but must be constantly vigilant to protect his lungs. The other died way too young in his late 40s or early 50s, because his disease didn’t manifest first in his lungs but took a less predictable path, crippled his mobility first and then attacked his brain before finally reaching his lungs, and thus wasn’t diagnosed until too late to do any good, leaving a wife and a couple of teenaged children bereft.
My impression is that it’s a mysterious, capricious and malevolent disease that does more harm than most of us recognize.
Passing this along
“”I wanted to share a brief health update. I recently underwent surgery to remove a cancerous tumor and am now recovering. I’m doing well and hopeful as I move forward.
Thank you for the many messages of support and prayers—they truly mean more than I can say. As I focus on recovery, I may not be able to respond to everyone, but please know how grateful I am.”
— Victor Davis Hanson
https://x.com/CondoleezzaRice/status/2007601668163252291
Skip and Watt; great to hear!!! Thanks.
We see so many marvelous medical break throughs and advances that it is hard to consider that with all that is known, there are still many areas yet to be successfully addressed and overcome. But we know that a basically free market environment is what is essential to achieve what has been and may yet be obtained.
I was diagnosed in my early thirties with “inactive sarcoidosis.” I had developed some asthmatic type symptoms, which probably are allergy related, and a small blip was detected on my chest x-ray. At any rate, I feel fortunate I can breathe and live a normal active life many years later. Praying for Dr. Hanson’s recovery.
A “cancerous tumor” tells us a bit more about Dr. Hanson’s situation. I wish him a full recovery and many more years among the living.