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Hadassah Hospital Director Shalom Mor-Yosef (r) and Cabinet Secretary Yisrael Maimon, facing the press outside the hospital (AP)
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| By Israel Insider staff and partners January 6, 2006 |
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Ariel Sharon's vital signs, including intracranial pressure, continued to decline Friday, following a third round of emergency brain surgery. Professor Shlomo Mor-Yosef, Director of Hadassah Hospital, announced that after four hours in the operating room, there was a reduction in bleeding and intracranial pressure. He said that a review of the post-op CT imaging indicated that there was a "significant improvement" in the image. This did not, however, change the overall condition of Sharon, which he called "serious but stable."
This relatively optimistic statement, made at the beginning of the Israeli sabbath to a gathering of hundreds of local and foreign journalist camped outside the Jerusalem Hospital, may have eased the atmosphere of crisis that prevailed throughout the day, but medical experts were quick to mention that the "significant improvement" did not herald any improvement in Sharon's condition but rather suggested that the deterioration noted at the beginning of the day had been at least temporarily rolled back.
Sharon's sudden, grave illness left his ambitious peace agenda in doubt and stunned Israelis, who were grappling with the likelihood that the man who dominated politics in the regions for decades would never return to power. "Between hope and despair," read the banner headline in the Maariv daily.
Sharon's sons, Omri and Gilad, were camped out in a room next door to their father's at the neurological intensive care unit.
Sharon's deputy, Ehud Olmert, has taken the reins as acting prime minister and tried to convey a sense of stability. Leaders of Sharon's new Kadima Party said they would rally around Olmert and a new poll released Friday showed Kadima would still sweep March elections, even without Sharon.
Sharon remained in serious condition and was to be kept in a medically-induced coma and on a respirator, probably until Sunday, to allow him time to heal, said Dr. Shmuel Shapira, deputy director of Jerusalem's Hadassah Hospital where Sharon is being treated.
Shapira told Army Radio it would take time to determine how much damage was caused by the widespread stroke that Sharon suffered Wednesday night. "This is a stage the requires much patience. We don't expect a tremendous turnaround. We're hoping for the best," he said.
Doctors at Hadassah said media reports of permanent, significant damage were irresponsible.
However, Friday's events reflected a further turn for the worse, further strengthened the increasing flow of medical experts stating, some anonymously and some on the record, that Ariel Sharon would never again be able to function as a human being or regain consciousness.
Israel Insider reported mid-day Thursday -- citing media, hospital and defense sources -- that Sharon's cerebral brain activity ceased as of Thursday, January 5, at 11 am, and that medical and defense sources had confirmed this. Other mainstream Israeli media sources were slower to bring news of the massive, irreversible brain damage caused by the massive hemorrhage.
Haaretz reported in its morning editions: "Unofficially, however, Sharon's doctors echoed the assessment given to Haaretz earlier by other senior doctors who had not personally examined the premier, but were relying on media reports of his condition. These doctors told Haaretz that the prime minister appeared to have suffered extensive and irreversible brain damage. "
Yediot Aharonot, citing anonymous senior medical sources, also reported that Sharon had suffered massive, irreversible brain damage.
The Jerusalem Post quoted "sources at Hadassah Hospital" as saying "late Thursday night that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon suffered extensive damage to the right lobe of his brain during the hemorrhage."
However, until late friday, no doctor had gone on record to characterize in layman's terms the extent of the damage to Sharon's brain, or its level of activity.
While Hadassah Hospital Director Shlomo Mor-Yosef indicated to reporters that Sharon's pupils contracted in response to light, this would only indicate that his brain stem was intact. He and other Hadassah staffers avoided answering questions about Sharon's mental functioning, saying only that these could not be properly evaluated in his current comatose condition.
However, the complaints voiced over the past two days by a number of commentators that the truth of Sharon's condition was being concealed from the Israeli public compelled Channel Two to address the issue directly.
Channel Two brought to its studios writer Eyal Megged, who complained that the media was deceiving Israelis into believing that Sharon might somehow return to his post as Prime Minister or even to function as a human being. He complained of a "messianic tendency" to transform Sharon into a "spiritual father" who would somehow return to life from what is effectively, in terms of normal human functioning, a terminal situation.
Megged alleged that it was irresponsible for the media to keep up the illusion to the public that there was a chance of recovery.
Dr. J. Martin Rabey, Chairman of the Assaf Rofeh Neurology Department, confirmed decisively that Sharon will never think as "homo sapiens" nor be able to speak, hear or be conscious. When asked directly whether the most optimistic scenario is that Sharon would be kept alive by breathing apparatus and be a non-conscious "vegetable," he answered in the affirmative.
The AP contributed to this report.
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