Oncologist Dolgopolov explained the energy of Valentin Yudashkin shortly before his death
Photo: Mikhail FROLOV
Sudden death Valentina Yudashkina came as a shock to all who knew him. The couturier made no secret of the fact that he was battling cancer; told how a kidney tumor turned into metastases in the brain and throughout the body. But in recent years, it seemed that the disease had receded: Yudashkin continued to produce collections, flashed at social events, and traveled. Yes, he lost weight and wore a wig, but, in the end, he was not bedridden even in the last days of his life: just a couple of weeks before the tragedy, the designer, for example, had fun at the birthday party of Nikas Safronov, not standing out from the rest of the guests.
Fans on social networks are perplexed: how can you burn out from cancer in a matter of hours, while not being terminally ill outwardly? So the artist Safronov cannot believe in the death of a friend – on the contrary, his appearance and activity inspired optimism.
However, for doctors, such a story is by no means uncommon.
“Over the past 20 years, medicine has learned, if not to cure cancer, then at least to prolong the life of patients and ensure its high quality,” explained KP.RU oncologist Igor Dolgopolov. – People live with cancer for 15 years: this is no longer surprising. Modern methods of treatment can slow down the development of the tumor, remove pain, inflammation. Just because it can’t be cured doesn’t mean it can’t be helped.
According to the doctor, the criterion “quality of life” appeared in medicine at the turn of the century. Previously, it simply did not exist, and bedridden patients, for example, fell into the same category as patients without any signs of illness.
– Before that, we looked at such indicators as mortality, survival, relapses. And now the main thing has become a high quality of life, in which a person can continue to work, meet friends, and conduct their usual activities, the oncologist continues. – There are much more methods of treatment: we can fight tumors with poisons, immunotherapy, cell vaccines, local radiation therapy, radioisotope techniques … But we must clearly understand that each method has its own price, and sometimes it is very high. All of these treatments can have extremely severe side effects. And the doctor’s art is to choose therapy in such a way as to slow down the tumor as much as possible and reduce side effects. This is a very difficult dilemma. Because the tumor is part of a person, it cannot be pulled out and killed. And destroying the tumor, we harm the whole body.
According to media reports, the cause of death of the fashion designer was cancer. Igor Dolgopolov agrees: most likely, death occurred against the background of severe oncology. However, the immediate causes of death, whether it be cardiac arrest, a blood clot, or failure of internal organs, are known only to the attending physicians and the family of Valentin Yudashkin.
– During treatment, organs and tissues are damaged, blood vessels suffer – there are many and varied side effects. Therefore, what exactly caused the death of Valentin Yudashkin, I think we are unlikely to ever know, the doctor concluded.
