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Sharon improves but prognosis still dire
(AP)
Updated: 2006-01-07 09:02 Mor-Yosef said a comparison of brain scans before and after the surgery
showed "significant improvement," but he did not elaborate.
The chief neurosurgeon operating on Sharon, Dr. Felix Umansky, said he came
through the surgery well but was likely to have suffered damage.
"There is always some damage when you have cerebral hemorrhage," he said in a
telephone interview. "We cannot assess the damage because he is under anesthesia
all the time. We need to wait and see what will happen once we reduce the
medication which keeps him under sedation."
Hospital officials said Sharon would remain in the medically induced coma
until at least noon Sunday to give him time to heal.
It was unclear whether the new bleeding was from a second rupture of the same
blood vessel that caused the original massive stroke or a break in another
vessel, which would constitute a new stroke. New bleeding from the
stroke-causing blood vessel in the first few days after a hemorrhagic stroke is
a common cause of death in patients. Another chief killer of such patients is
swelling of the brain.
Independent doctors said Sharon's chances for recovery were slim, and
Sharon's aides said they were working on the assumption he would not return to
work.
Shlomo Mor-Yosef, Hadassah Hospital director,
updates the media on Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's medical
condition outside the hospital in Jerusalem January 5,
2006.[Reuters] | "One feels slightly more positive about the outcome because some of the
problems have been able to be reversed, but the underlying problem remains. He
still had further bleeding and that doesn't change the prognosis, which still
looks dire," said Dr. Anthony Rudd, a stroke specialist at St. Thomas' Hospital
in London.
Noting that a CT scan shows the structure — not the function — of the brain,
Rudd said the improvement that Sharon's doctors referred to likely applies to
the reduction of swelling seen in the earlier scan.
The surgery Friday followed a seven-hour operation Sharon underwent Thursday
after he suffered a massive brain hemorrhage as he rode in an ambulance to the
hospital from his ranch in southern Israel.
Sharon's grave condition threw Israeli politics into flux less than three
months before national elections. Israeli officials said the elections would
proceed as scheduled regardless of Sharon's fate.
The new poll released Friday showed Kadima would still sweep the vote, even
without Sharon, who formed the party after bolting the hardline Likud last year
following Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. Kadima's platform seeks a
compromise for peace with the Palestinians.
The poll published in the Yediot Ahronot daily Friday found that an
Olmert-headed Kadima would win 39 of 120 parliament seats, slightly fewer than
the party polled under Sharon but enough to lead the next government.
The poll of 500 people was taken Thursday and had a margin of error of 4.4
percentage points. Some pollsters said the results might be influenced by
sympathy for Sharon and could change during the campaign.
The poll showed Peres would net 42 seats as Kadima leader, but analysts said
it was unlikely he would be chosen to lead the party. Peres met with Olmert on
Friday but did not give details of their talk.
"We will know how to continue Israel's policy ... to continue Ariel Sharon's
policies," Peres said.
As Israelis rushed to prepare for the Sabbath, many were fatalistic.
"It's very sad that he's going," Itzik Gordon, a 48-year-old contractor, said
of Sharon. "He was a real leader, from the establishment of the state until
now."
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