Sharon critical but stable

Sharon critical but stable

7.44PM, Thu Jan 5 2006

Prime Minister of Israel Ariel Sharon, is to be kept on life support for two days, according to his dotors.

Surgeons at Jerusalem's Hadassah hospital said they stemmed bleeding in the 77-year-old leader's brain in a seven-hour operation and described his condition as critical but stable.

Hospital director Shlomo Mor-Yosef said the Israeli prime minister had retained brain function, but gave a pessimistic assessment of Sharon's chances of being able to resume his job, now being carried out by his deputy, Ehud Olmert.

He said: "I must point out that, regarding the future, under the current circumstances it will not be possible".
snip

Ehud Olmert has been named acting prime minister. But political analysts said the election, which Sharon had been widely expected to win as head of the new centrist Kadima party, would become an open race if he died or was incapacitated.

http://www.itn.co.uk/news/index_1236126.html

Hospital chief: PM Ariel Sharon to remain under deep sedation for next 48 hours at least

By Yoav Stern, Jonathan Lis, Aluf Benn and Tamara Traubman, Haaretz Correspondents

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon sustained vast brain damage as a result of his stroke and ensuing cerebral hemorrhage, sources at Hadassah Hospital Ein Karem in Jerusalem said on Thursday evening.

On Friday morning, doctors will perform a CT scan on the premier's brain, to check his condition. However, only on Sunday will doctors try to revive Sharon from his induced coma to determine the effects of the hemorrhage for the first time since it happened.

The hospital manager, Professor Shmuel Mor-Yosef, said on Thursday evening that predictions for the future are almost impossible to make. "We can't know what the results of the surgery will be, whether it will have influenced his motor skills or his ability to think. Only after he comes out of the induced coma will we be able to make an assessment."


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A friend of mine went through something similar several years ago she was younger and healthier than Sharon and stayed in intensive care for a month. Much of that time she was in an induced coma, as is Sharon. She is doing fairly well considering everything that she went through, but she was 20 years younger and was physically in great shape before the ordeal. The rehabilitation process takes some time, and I doubt if Sharon would be able to resume his duties anytime in the near future, if ever.

put him on a ventilator... so sad...

This is just giving the government time to manuever... it reminds me of the Vatican when John Paul was put on the ventilator...

it was just stalling for time...

I think Sharon has passed away. They're just stalling for time, to get somebody else in there, so it doesn't create chaos.

I've read on other European news sites that he is in fact, dead.

People can sometimes be a hell of a lot harder to bring down than their parts would imply. Sharon's obviously not in good shape, but I'm not quite about to write him off yet.

Sometimes a respirator's just keeping the shell alive; sometimes it's keeping the person who's still there alive. I don't have enough info to know for sure which this is, but I won't discount the latter case until I hear some more.