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| Sunday, 8 January 2006 |
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World |  |
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Israel's
Sharon critical but stable after surgery
JERUSALEM, Jan 7 (Reuters) Surgeons staunched renewed bleeding in Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's brain in a five-hour operation on Friday but said they would only know the extent of damage when he comes out of sedation in days ahead. "We cannot yet assess the damage that was caused to the prime minister," Felix Umansky, one of the neurosurgeons treating the 77-year-old leader, told reporters late on Friday. "There is always damage in cases like these. We have to wait to see how he will react when we lessen the dosage of the medications that are keeping him sedated." Doctors at Jerusalem's Hadassah hospital and stroke experts abroad say it is extremely unlikely Sharon will ever return to work, throwing into doubt his plan to seek peace with the Palestinians by withdrawing from Gaza and parts of the West Bank while holding onto key settlements in occupied territory. Following Friday's surgery, doctors said Sharon was in a critical but stable condition. He remains in a medically-induced coma and on a respirator. "During the surgery the cranial pressure was released and some of the blood clots that remained from the previous surgery were drained," said Hadassah hospital director Shlomo Mor-Yosef. "At the end of the operation there is no active bleeding." He said Sharon's brain scan showed "significant improvement" compared with previous scans. The death or incapacitation of Sharon, who raised peace hopes by pulling Israeli settlers and troops out of Gaza in September to end 38 years of military rule, would create a huge vacuum in Israeli politics and the Middle East peace process. But Sharon's doctors, speaking before Friday's surgery, cautioned against undue pessimism over his condition. |
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