Jeff Bezos Floored by Kidney Stone in the Galapagos Islands.

This story appears in the Sunday January 5^th edition of the Washington Post. In short the story is that billionaire Amazon.com founder turned newspaper publisher was felled by a kidney stone while on vacation on one of the more remote of the Galapagos Islands and flown by an Ecuadoran naval helicopter to another island where Bezos' had his private jet parked. There apparently was a stop at a local hospital for Bezos before flying on to the US for medical treatment. I suspect the local hospital is where he got his shot and his stone catcher.

I can see why the Washington Post published the story, after all he owns the freaking newspaper and I don't think that any of his underlings wanted El Queso Grande to think his people were ignoring his pain. Based on my own life experiences with the occasional kidney stone I do not question the depth of his pain and believe me I can feel his pain. I remember my first kidney stone and the pain was awful. Most kidney stone treatment involves a welcomed shot of some narcotic such as Demerol and some imaging. In most cases the sufferer (myself included) is released with instructions to drink gallon after gallon of water and to strain one's urine output in an attempt to retrieve the stone and also given a prescription for a bottle of Vicodin with instructions to also take a laxative to avoid constipation from taking the Vicodin.

I just question the newsworthiness of this story about Mr. Bezos. Perhaps it is newsworthy as an attempt to point out the difference in the lengths that obscenely wealthy people will go to relieve their pain while ignoring the pain of countless millions of other of people of lesser means. Feel better Jeff.