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The Director of the Hadassah hospital, Dr. Shlomo Mor-Yosef, walks away after briefing the media about the condition of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, outside the hospital in Jerusalem Monday. (AP)
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| By Associated Press January 9, 2006 |
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PM Ariel Sharon moved his right hand and leg in response to a pain test after doctors began bringing him out of an induced coma to assess damage caused by his stroke. Sharon also began breathing on his own.
Experts said that while independent breathing improved his chances for survival, it gave no indication about other physical or mental capacities. One doctor opined that early results suggested left-side paralysis.
Doctors made the decision to lift the anesthesia after a round of consultations Monday. Hospital director Dr. Shlomo Mor-Yosef said the process of weaning Sharon from sedation could take hours or days.
"As soon as we started reducing the drugs...the prime minister started to breathe independently, although he is still hooked up to a respirator that is used as an aid," Mor-Yosef said, adding that Sharon remains in critical condition.
Prof. Shlomo Mor-Yosef, Director of Hadassah, Jerusalem, said later in the afternoon that Sharon had moved his right hand and leg, and that together with a slight in rise in blood pressure, signs of brain activity are indicated.
Prof. Felix Umansky, head of the hospital's neurosurgery department, said that Sharon's limb movements were not reflexive, but rather clear responses to pain. But Umansky said it could take "days" to know whether Sharon had suffered cognitive damage. There has so far been no sign of cognitive activity.
Mor-Yosef emphasized that the process of awakening the Prime Minister could take hours or even days.
Outside experts have said doctors should have a good idea of the extent of the damage by the end of the day. One of Sharon's neurosurgeons has cautioned that it was unlikely he could function as prime minister again.
After withdrawing the sedatives, doctors are to pass their assessment of brain damage to Attorney General Meni Mazuz, who will then decide whether to declare the prime minister permanently incapacitated. "The minute we know what damage has occurred, we will talk," Justice Ministry spokesman Yaakov Galanti said.
Since an acting prime minister is in place, there is no urgency to such a declaration, Galanti added. Ehud Olmert, Sharon's deputy, was named acting prime minister after Sharon suffered the stroke last Wednesday, and can serve in that role for 100 days.
In the event the attorney general declares permanent incapacitation, the Cabinet would have to elect a new prime minister within 24 hours, from among the five sitting Cabinet ministers from Sharon's Kadima Party who are also lawmakers, Galanti said.
That group includes Olmert, a potential political heir.
The 77-year-old Sharon, Israel's most popular politician, was seen by many here as the best hope for resolving the Israel-Palestinian conflict. His abrupt illness and expected departure from the Mideast political stage has raised concern that momentum on territorial concessions, created by his recent Gaza Strip withdrawal, would be stopped, and that Sharon's successor wouldn't have the stature to forge ahead on drawing Israel's final borders.
Before his collapse, Sharon appeared headed to a landslide victory in March 28 elections at the head of the Kadima Party, which seeks further pullbacks while strengthening Israel's hold over major settlement blocs.
Sharon suffered a severe stroke on Wednesday, two weeks after a first, mild stroke, and was rushed to Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem where he has undergone two surgeries to stop bleeding in his brain.
Sharon's condition and the uncertainty it has generated has unsettled Israelis, who have been anxiously following news reports for updates.
At the entrance to the hospital on Monday, three Jerusalemites hung up a white sheet with blue lettering in English and Hebrew that read, "Ariel Sharon, there is more to do, please wake up."
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.
Doctors not involved in Sharon's care said that if he awakens, the extent of his responses could vary widely, from slight movements of the fingers or opening of the eyes, to a much fuller awakening. They have also cautioned that there is no guarantee that Sharon will awaken from the anesthesia.
That Sharon can breathe on his own "tells us that one part of his brain is functioning, the respiratory center," said Dr. John Martin, a professor of cardiovascular medicine at University College in London. "It doesn't tell us how he is thinking, it doesn't tell us how he can speak, it doesn't tell us how he can move his arms and legs.
"His chances of survival are better than if the respiratory center had been damaged, but that still doesn't mean he's going to survive. ... It is still highly probable that he will die," Martin added, noting that Sharon's weight and age work against him.
One of Sharon's surgeons, Dr. Jose Cohen, has 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 Sunday by The Jerusalem Post.
But Prof. J. Martin Rabey, who heads the neurology department at the Assaf Harofeh Hospital in Tzrifin, was more pessimistic: "If he's lucky, he'll remain an invalid."
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