Doctors to bring Sharon out of induced coma
The hospital caring for Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon said early today that there was no change in his condition overnight, and doctors planned to bring him out of a medically induced coma.
They will assess the damage caused by his massive stroke five days ago.
Doctors cautioned that it was unlikely Sharon could recover enough to return to his post.
"There is no change in the prime minister's condition, which is still critical but stable," the statement said. Israel TV reported that doctors decided after consultations Monday to bring Sharon out of the coma in coming hours.
The process of weaning Sharon away from the anaesthetics was expected to take six to eight hours, and experts said doctors should have a good idea of the extent of the damage by the end of the day.
Hospital spokeswoman Yael Bossem-Levy would not disclose the timetable for the consultations or procedures set for today.
One of Sharon’s doctors has said the prime minister – if he survives – would not be able to resume office, and acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, seen as Sharon’s potential heir, told the Cabinet he would work to carry on Sharon’s political legacy.
Sharon remained in critical condition at Jerusalem’s Hadassah Hospital after suffering a stroke late on Wednesday and undergoing two lengthy surgeries to stop bleeding in his brain.
A new brain scan yesterday showed his vital signs, including intracranial pressure, were normal, said Dr Shlomo Mor-Yosef, the hospital’s director.
“His condition is still critical, but stable, and there is improvement in the CT picture of the brain,” Mor-Yosef said.
The 77-year-old Sharon, Israel’s most popular politician, was seen by many as the best hope for resolving the Israel-Palestinian conflict. His grave illness, just three months before elections, stunned Israelis and left Middle East politics in limbo.
Doctors have kept Sharon in a medically-induced coma and on a respirator since Thursday to give him time to heal from the trauma of the stroke and the surgeries.
After withdrawing the sedatives, doctors were to pass their assessment of brain damage to Attorney General Meni Mazuz. “They will inform us the moment they wake him up from the sedation and they will know what systems were damaged and what his situation is,” said Justice Ministry spokesman Jacob Galanti
If doctors determine that Sharon is permanently incapacitated, the Cabinet would immediately meet to choose a new prime minister from the five sitting Cabinet ministers from Sharon’s Kadima Party, a group that includes Olmert.
One of Sharon’s surgeons, Dr. Jose Cohen, said that while Sharon’s chances of survival were high, his ability to think and reason would be impaired.
“He will not continue to be prime minister, but maybe he will be able to understand and to speak,” the Argentina-born Cohen said in comments published yesterday by The Jerusalem Post.
Outside experts were even less optimistic.
“There is zero expectation on my part that he will have the capacity to perform in any kind of formal way,” said Dr. Keith Siller, Medical Director at the NYU Comprehensive Stroke Care Centre.
Israel’s Cabinet met for its weekly gathering yesterday for the first time since Sharon’s stroke.
Olmert sat next to Sharon’s empty chair, the prime minister’s untouched gavel rested in the middle of the table.
Olmert, who is considered Sharon’s political heir, told the ministers that Sharon would want everyone to get back to work on the country’s pressing security, social and economic issues.
“This we will continue to do,” he said. “We will continue also to carry out the wishes of Sharon, to manage affairs as necessary.”
Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz said that the country’s security forces were in complete control despite Sharon’s illness.
“I think the people of Israel need to be worried about only one thing – the health situation of Arik,” he told Israel’s Channel 2, referring to Sharon by his nickname. “The security establishment is continuing to operate cool-headedly, responsibly and decisively and if we are put to the test we will know how to respond.”
Shimon Peres, the Labour Party elder statesman and Nobel Peace Prize laureate who abandoned his party to join Sharon in Kadima, dispelled rumours that he might return to his former party or challenge Olmert. Addressing a gathering in Jerusalem on Sunday, he said he “fully and faithfully” supports Olmert. Later, in a CNN interview, he called on his backers to vote for Kadima.
The Cabinet meeting was Olmert’s first formal opportunity to persuade Israelis and the world that the nation’s affairs were in good hands and that he would work to carry out Sharon’s political programme.
Before his collapse, Sharon appeared headed to a landslide victory in March 28 elections as head of his new centrist Kadima Party, formed in the wake of his withdrawal from Gaza this summer.
Sharon was expected in a third term to try to draw Israel’s permanent boundaries, evacuating small West Bank settlements while strengthening Israel’s hold over larger ones. But it is unclear whether Olmert or any other successor would have the popularity or charisma to carry out such a plan.
Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia wished Sharon a quick recovery and expressed hope for new peace talks. “We are looking for a new era in which we can negotiate and be partners in a real peace that serves both peoples,” he told his Cabinet.
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