Peter Jackson Hospitalized w/ Stomach Ulcer

An anonymous reader writes "The Hobbit author JRR Tolkien suffered from a perforated ulcer before dying in 1973. Now today, New Zealander Sir Peter Jackson, director of the Lord of the Rings trilogy and soon-to-be-director of the two Hobbit movies, was hospitalized with a perforated stomach ulcer, and underwent surgery. This is only expected to slightly delay the filming of The Hobbit, and he's expected to make a full recovery."

Ulcers don't kill anymore

[Anonymous Coward]

Since it is now well known that ulcers are primarily a result of bacterial infection, they can be cured with antibiotics. Perforated ulcers these days is primary the result of lack of diagnosis. This can be due to doctor's incompetence, bad luck and/or patient's inability to seek medical help.

But overall, the stomach ulcer condition is very curable. You no longer bleed out or have your stomach removed because you have ulcers, like it was common in as early as 1980s

Re:Ulcers don't kill anymore

[GameMaster]

Yea, the OP also, conveniently, forgot to mention the fact that Tolkien was 81 when his ulcer killed him. Older people tend to have a much higher mortality rate with major surgery, for obvious reasons.

Re:What Caused the Ulcer?

[sloanesky]

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't it now known that most ulcers are caused by Helicobacter Pylori [wikipedia.org] infection rather than being stress induced? Stress may have exacerbated the symptoms but I'd wager this nasty microbe was what caused it.

Check out the history section in the above link for the awesome story of how the guy who discovered the link between H. Pylori and ulcers got people to take his results seriously. Its one of my favorites.

Re:What Caused the Ulcer?

[SplashMyBandit]

Well, it turns out that several months ago an Australian actors' union (lead by a guy called Simon Whipp) tried to muscle in on the New Zealand scene and caused a lot of problems for the production. Jackson was involved in the resulting cat-fight, and no-one (including Jackson) came out looking like a saint (although some looked worse than others). The problem was resolved by the NZ Government stepping in, modifying some laws and promising greater assistance for the film. Cynics have a small NZ industry dispute being inflated to the benefit of large Hollywood studios (who made noises about moving the film elsewhere - which ultimately ensured they received a beneficial outcome).

This was what passes for major news in New Zealand, since we don't have too much other bad stuff going at that time (dislaimer: I'm from New Zealand).

Here is some of the reporting of the bitch-fighting that went on (go forth Slashdotters, melt that server to molten slag!):
http://www.onfilm.co.nz/2010/10/27/peter-jackson-statement-re-actors-equity-the-hobbit-i-was-never-asked-for-a-meeting-not-without-a-gun-to-my-head-2/ [onfilm.co.nz]