In another personal letter to employees and shareholders, Apple CEO Steve Jobs on Wednesday said he would take a five-month leave of absence from the company after discovering that his health problems
are "more complex" than he thought last week. COO Tim Cook will replace Jobs as CEO during his absence. The news brought Apple shares down 7.1% in early Thursday trading.
While Jobs' letter
revealed few medical details, doctors tell Bloomberg News that there's a good chance he's suffering from a side effect of the Whipple operation he underwent in 2004, in which parts of his pancreas,
bile duct and small intestine were removed. The operation can cause a pancreatic leak, which means the pancreas must then be removed, and the patient has to be kept alive with insulin to regulate the
blood sugar.
Robert Thomas, head of surgery at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre in Melbourne, who has performed many Whipple procedures, says, "You're on significant doses of insulin, and
it's not easy to manage. The person has the risk of severe diabetes." Meanwhile, just last week, Jobs said a hormonal imbalance was the reason he had lost so much weight, and that treatment would be
"simple and straightforward." Understandably, Apple's vague handling of Jobs' health has frustrated analysts and shareholders.
Read the whole story at Bloomberg News »