Israel's Sharon Rushed to Hospital Jan 04 3:27 PM US/Eastern
JERUSALEM
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was rushed to a hospital late Wednesday after feeling ill, his office said. Israeli media reported that he apparently suffered a second stroke. The announcement said he was taken to Jerusalem's Hadassah Hospital, where he was scheduled to undergo a heart procedure Thursday to close a hole that contributed to his Dec. 18 stroke. Israeli media and the Israeli rescue service said Sharon was taken to Soroka Hospital in Beersheba, not far from his ranch, where he was resting before the Thursday procedure. Sharon's office said his personal physician was with him, and he was fully conscious.
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נשלח ב-4/1/2006 22:50
Israel's Sharon Rushed to Hospital 1 minute ago
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was rushed to a hospital late Wednesday after feeling ill, his office said.
Israeli media reported that he apparently suffered a second stroke or possibly a heart ailment. The announcement said Sharon, 77, was taken to Jerusalem's Hadassah Hospital, where he was scheduled to undergo a procedure Thursday to close a hole in his heart that contributed to his Dec. 18 stroke.
Sharon's office said his personal physician was with him, and the Israeli leader was fully conscious. Sharon was taken to the same hospital Dec. 18.
Channel 10 News quoted Sharon's spokesman Wednesday as saying the prime minister's symptoms were not severe, and he was being taken by ambulance from his ranch in the southern Negev to the Jerusalem hospital.
Another hospital, Soroka in Beersheba, is much closer to the ranch, and Israeli media were concluding that his condition was not serious. Channel 10 said the heart procedure might be advanced.
Doctors said last month that Sharon would not suffer long-term effects from the stroke, but they discovered a birth defect in his heart that apparently contributed to the stroke. The hole measures about one-eighth of an inch.
Using a catheter inserted through a blood vessel in Sharon's groin, a team of cardiologists will put an umbrella-like device over the hole to seal it. A small camera inserted through Sharon's throat will guide the doctors.
Sharon will be under general anesthesia, and Vice Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will take over during the procedure, Sharon's office said.
By Allyn Fisher-Ilan JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, a dominant figure for decades in shaping the Middle East, suffered a massive brain hemorrhage on Wednesday and doctors battled to save his life. "It looks very bad. I don't know if he will recover," said a senior political source after Sharon, 77, was taken in an ambulance from his ranch in southern Israel to Hadassah hospital in Jerusalem late on Wednesday. Sharon's death or incapacitation would cause political upheaval in Israel ahead of a March 28 general election he had been expected to win on a platform of ending conflict with the Palestinians. He has been prime minister since 2001. Hopes of any negotiations on Palestinian statehood would be given another setback. "He has significant, massive cerebral bleeding ... the aim of the operation is to drain it," Hadassah hospital director Shmuel Shapira said. "We have the largest team that Israeli medicine can offer, the most senior people." Sharon's prime ministerial powers were transferred temporarily to his deputy, Ehud Olmert, who was to hold an emergency cabinet meeting later. Recent polls have not shown Olmert to be seen as a long-term successor. Sharon, who raised optimism for Middle East peace by pulling settlers and soldiers out of the Gaza Strip last September to end 38 years of military rule, suffered what doctors described as a mild stroke on December 18. He had been due to undergo an operation on Thursday at Hadassah hospital to repair a tiny hole in his heart thought to have contributed to his stroke last month. "BULLDOZER" The hefty ex-general popularly known as "The Bulldozer" spent several days in hospital but plowed back into a punishing public schedule in recent weeks. Opinion polls have shown Sharon was on course to win the March election as leader of the new centrist Kadima faction he founded after quitting the right-wing Likud party in the face of a party rebellion over the Gaza pullout. Continued ...
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is in critical condition after a brain hemorrhage and surgery to stop the bleeding was likely to take several more hours, a doctor said on Thursday, six hours into the operation. "We expect the surgery will take several more hours. The prime minister is sedated and on a respirator. One could say his condition is grave," Shlomo Mor-Yosef, director of Jerusalem's Hadassah hospital, told reporters.
