Goldfarb Undergoing Tests to Evaluate His Health

A spokesperson for the Columbia-Presbyterian hospital in Manhattan said that ailing former Soviet refusenik David Goldfarb is in stable condition, and is undergoing tests to evaluate his health.

Goldfarb and his wife Cecilia, who were unexpectedly given permission to leave the USSR last Wednesday, arrived in New York Thursday night with American industrialist Armand Hammer aboard his private jet. He was met at Newark Airport by his son, Alexander Goldfarb, and his friend, journalist Nicholas Daniloff.

The hospital’s spokesperson told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency last Friday that Goldfarb is being evaluated for diabetes, cardiac status and peripheral vascular disease. There has been no update on his condition since Friday because the family has requested that no further information be made available, the spokesperson told the JTA Sunday.

The 67-year-old molecular biologist and geneticist has been suffering from severe diabetes, whose complications include a heart ailment, ulcers, some blindness and loss of part of his foot. He lost a leg during World War II, in the battle of Stalingrad.

The fitting of a prosthesis is possible, according to Dr. Kenneth Prager of Bergen County, NJ who is a cardiopulmonary physician at Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital. Prager boarded the plane to check David Goldfarb after the family had been reunited. Prager explained that the elder Goldfarb had never received a prosthesis because the Soviets are not advanced in the field.

Awaiting the arrival of Hammer’s plane Thursday evening, Alexander Goldfarb told reporters he was grateful to Hammer.