"His legacy isn't static, it's still being written. Attitudes and people change over time."
John Hansen-Flaschen, chief of the pulmonary, allergy and critical care division at the University of Pennsylvania Lung Center, who was working Sunday in the medical intensive care unit, said he did not believe the controversy reduced Paterno's will to live. But on a practical level, it could have harmed him and shortened his life, as it may have distracted Paterno from critical jobs required of every patient undergoing chemotherapy.
Hansen-Flaschen said he could only speculate, but said the crisis might have influenced Paterno's decision to seek treatment in State College, Pa., rather than in better-known cancer centers in Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Cleveland, or New York. He said that chemotherapy was arduous and that the patient's role was every bit as important as the doctor's and the medicine's.
"Did he bow out two cycles short on his treatment?" Hansen-Flaschen asked. Or did he not get out of bed and walk enough, or not eat enough?
"If somebody is distracted or despondent," he said, he or she might not be making the best decisions.
"I don't buy some mind-body thing," Hansen-Flaschen said. "I think it's how much you engage in the treatment."
Contact staff writer Michael Vitez at 215-854-5639 or mvitez@phillynews.com, or on Twitter @michaelvitez.
