DiMasi’s throat cancer is an everyday struggle
Every swallow is a struggle for someone like Salvatore F. DiMasi, the jailed former House speaker battling stage 4 tongue and throat cancer.
Most of us are familiar with the momentary panic when, by some fluke, you accidentally inhale food. For DiMasi, it’s a constant fear — and he must cope while navigating the hardships of prison life.
“When you can’t even swallow your saliva without choking on it, it can be very crippling and make people very ill and impact on quality of life,” said Dr. Lori Wirth, director of the Head and Neck Cancer Program at Massachusetts General Hospital.
“It’s really something we take for granted,” said Wirth, who added she could not comment on DiMasi’s case.
A federal judge yesterday heard from DiMasi’s lawyers who hope to end the 71-year-old’s eight-year sentence two years early, given his fragile health.
DiMasi was convicted in 2011 on conspiracy, fraud and extortion charges in connection with software contracts for which prosecutors said he was funneled $65,000 in bribes and kickbacks to push on the state.
He is now considered cancerfree, but was diagnosed with stage 4 tongue and throat cancer soon after he was sentenced.
Attorney Charles W. Rankin on Monday painted a bleak picture of the once-powerful Democrat, writing that he has lost nearly 50 pounds since sentencing.
“Mr. DiMasi is unable to eat regular prison food and is for the most part limited to a liquid diet consisting of soft and pureed foods, thickened in some instances to avoid the danger of aspiration,” Rankin wrote.
Throat cancers are treatable with aggressive seven-week radiation and chemotherapy regimens. But treatments can result in long-lasting and painful side effects.
The delicate pink lining in the throat becomes broken down, hardening with scar tissue, leaving the esophagus narrow and weakened.
“All patients essentially have to at least rely on nutritional supplements to be able to maintain an adequate nutritional status,” Wirth said.
“Many even need to have a feeding tube in place.”
A feeding tube may be in the cards for DiMasi “if dysphasia and aspiration continue,” Rankin wrote.
For people leading civilian lives, it can be isolating, keeping patients from social activities that so often center around food and drink. But for prisoners, it could even be a challenge to receive basic treatment like physician attention and speech therapy, said Tufts Medical Center Otolaryngologist Dr. Miriam O’Leary.
“You just don’t have as easy access to any of the medical support that you’d otherwise get,” she said, though she could not comment on DiMasi’s case.
She added that inhaling food can lead to pneumonia — which DiMasi has had previously — and can be life-threatening.
DiMasi awaits a decision from U.S. District Court Judge Mark L. Wolf.
“I have to decide whether there are extraordinary and compelling circumstances,” Wolf said, “and whether they justify release.”