Art Buchwald. Satire or Irony...

I don't know how many of my regular readers read (that felt nice again, to say regular readers, like I'm as hot as) Art Buchwald. His satire was as pinching as it was tickling. Did I say 'was'? Ah! The past tense brings on a rather lonely feel doesn't it? Buchwald no longer writes.

Now look at how satire swept into Buchwald's life at eighty. He was admitted in hospital for kidney failure. Perhaps it was typical of him, I can't tell, but he refused dialysis. So what did the doctor's do? They pronounced that he'd have just a week to live.

Since then, weeks and months have passed by.

And now I've come to know that he's gotten his leg amputated because of a vascular condition! Mind you, the amputation is "not connected with a kidney problem, which was less severe than expected", to quote the medics.

But "he's really doing very well," added the medics. How can they tell? He just lost his leg at eighty. Wasn't losing his kidney better? I can't tell though. And I can't decide if that's satire or an irony. Can you?