JAPAN: BASEBALL: World home run king and Japan's top baseball coach Sadaharu Oh checks out of hospital after undergoing an operation for stomach cancer

World home run king and Japan's top baseball manager Sadaharu Oh checked out of hospital on Wednesday (August 2) hardly two weeks after he underwent an operation for stomach cancer. "I didn't think I would get cancer so it took me by surprise. I was told that that it was better to have surgery early so I went into hospital. Now I feel great and apart from when I eat meals I don't realise that I no longer have a stomach," said a radiant Sadaharu Oh at a news conference following his release from hospital. Oh was hospitalised early in July after doctors discovered a tumour in his digestive tract. Surgeons at Tokyo's Keio University hospital immediately decided to remove the tumour located near the lymphatic nodes. Cancer can spread throughout the body at an alarming rate once it spreads to the lymph nodes. However after a successful laparoscopic surgery operation, a procedure also called keyhole surgery where doctors are not required to cut open the whole abdomen, they found no other tumours and concluded that the cancer was in its early stage. The surgical procedure also meant a minimum loss of blood during surgery allowing for the patient's rapid recovery. Sadaharu Oh had been the manager of the leading Japanese pacific league baseball team Fukuoka Softbank Hawks since 1995 until he announced he was taking an indefinite leave of absence to combat his cancer. He also managed to lead Japan's national team to victory in the inaugural World Baseball Classic in March, 2006. "Baseball is my life so I hope to return as soon as possible to the game to experience the happiness of winning and taste the bitterness of defeat," he told reporters as he left the hospital. Oh has also been known as Japan's most famous baseball batting star who broke Hank Aaron's world record in 1977 with his 868 home runs. Oh is the son of a Chinese father and a Japanese mother. Though born in Tokyo, he still carries a China republic passport. His Chinese name is Wang Chen-Chih.

ITN Source | August 3, 2006

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