JERUSALEM – Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon remained critically ill in hospital yesterday, the day after undergoing emergency surgery to remove part of his intestines as he entered his 40th day in a coma.
Officials at Jerusalem’s Hadassah hospital said Sharon’s life was not in danger following the four-hour stomach surgery needed to repair damage to his digestive system which doctors said was indicative of a wider systemic collapse in the 77-year-old patient. “The prime minister remains in a critical but stable condition.His life is not in danger after yesterday’s intervention,” said Hadassah spokesman Ron Krumer.The operation to extract around a third of his largest intestine came after doctors detected significant swelling to his abdomen.Despite the success of the surgery, hospital director Shlomo Mor Yosef emphasised that the abdominal problems were merely a further complication to a patient who has still to emerge from the coma that was medically induced after he suffered a massive brain haemorrhage on January 4.”It is important to re-emphasise that the general problem is his coma.It is not his abdominal pain,” he said on Saturday night.”Every day that passes, his chances of recovering are reduced.”Ehud Olmert, who has taken over the reins of power, put a positive spin on the latest bulletin from the Hadassah.”We are encouraged by the reports from the hospital on the state of the prime minister’s health following his operation yesterday,” he said at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting.”The entire government embraces (Sharon’s sons) Omri and Gilad who are sitting at their father’s bedside day and night.”While the days stretch into weeks, Israelis have become increasingly accustomed to the idea that the era of Sharon – who dominated the political scene like no other prime minister – is well and truly over.Rather than sink in the absence of its skipper, Sharon’s newly-formed Kadima party has sailed serenely on in the last 40 days.The latest batch of opinion polls have all forecast that Kadima should win around double the number of votes of its nearest rivals when Israel holds a general election on March 28 Lior Horev, one of Sharon’s senior advisors, said Kadima’s strong lead in the polls showed that accusations that it was a one-man band were wide of the mark and its wider political platform was a vote-winner.”The prime minister’s state of health is not of primary importance from the electorate’s point of view,” Horev told Israeli radio.In his first interview last week since taking over from Sharon, Olmert indicated that he planned to carry out more unilateral pullouts from the West Bank along the lines of Sharon’s “disengagement” from the Gaza Strip last year.-Nampa-AFP”The prime minister remains in a critical but stable condition.His life is not in danger after yesterday’s intervention,” said Hadassah spokesman Ron Krumer.The operation to extract around a third of his largest intestine came after doctors detected significant swelling to his abdomen.Despite the success of the surgery, hospital director Shlomo Mor Yosef emphasised that the abdominal problems were merely a further complication to a patient who has still to emerge from the coma that was medically induced after he suffered a massive brain haemorrhage on January 4.”It is important to re-emphasise that the general problem is his coma.It is not his abdominal pain,” he said on Saturday night.”Every day that passes, his chances of recovering are reduced.”Ehud Olmert, who has taken over the reins of power, put a positive spin on the latest bulletin from the Hadassah.”We are encouraged by the reports from the hospital on the state of the prime minister’s health following his operation yesterday,” he said at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting.”The entire government embraces (Sharon’s sons) Omri and Gilad who are sitting at their father’s bedside day and night.”While the days stretch into weeks, Israelis have become increasingly accustomed to the idea that the era of Sharon – who dominated the political scene like no other prime minister – is well and truly over.Rather than sink in the absence of its skipper, Sharon’s newly-formed Kadima party has sailed serenely on in the last 40 days.The latest batch of opinion polls have all forecast that Kadima should win around double the number of votes of its nearest rivals when Israel holds a general election on March 28 Lior Horev, one of Sharon’s senior advisors, said Kadima’s strong lead in the polls showed that accusations that it was a one-man band were wide of the mark and its wider political platform was a vote-winner.”The prime minister’s state of health is not of primary importance from the electorate’s point of view,” Horev told Israeli radio.In his first interview last week since taking over from Sharon, Olmert indicated that he planned to carry out more unilateral pullouts from the West Bank along the lines of Sharon’s “disengagement” from the Gaza Strip last year.-Nampa-AFP
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