Bezos Suffers Kidney Stone, Flies Back to U.S.

Amazon.com founder Jeffrey P. Bezos, the new owner of the Washington Post, was flown back to the United States from his vacation in the Galapagos Islands over the New Year’s Day holiday because of a kidney stone attack. His spokesman quoted Bezos as saying, “Galapagos: five stars. Kidney stones: zero stars.”

An Ecuadorian navy captain in the Galapagos told the Ecuadorian news media that Bezos was flown by an HN-407 navy helicopter from the island of Santa Cruz to the island of Baltra, where his private jet was, then flown back to the United States. The front desk manager at the Royal Palm Hotel in Puerto Ayora, a town on Academy Bay, where the attack occurred, said she was informed that Bezos was first taken to a local hospital before his travel back to the U.S.

Bezos bought the Washington Post Co. for $250 million last October.