Report: Sharon undergoes emergency surgery (AP) Updated: 2006-01-06 18:21
The surgery Friday followed a seven-hour operation Sharon underwent Thursday
morning after he suffered a massive brain hemorrhage. Doctors had put him in a
medically induced coma to give his body time to heal, but most outside experts
said his chances for recovery were slim.
On Friday morning, doctors sent him back for a brain scan to monitor his
condition. After the scan, he was rushed back into the emergency room, Mor-Yosef
said.
Sharon's sons, Omri and Gilad, were camped out in a room next door to their
father's at the neurological intensive care unit.
Dr. Yonathan Halevy, a senior doctor at Jerusalem's Shaarei Zedek Hospital
who is not treating Sharon, said he was also worried about the Israeli leader's
condition.
"The fact that the bleeding has resumed is a sign of a significant
deterioration," he told Israel TV.
Outside medical experts said bleeding from the stroke may have led to
interference of the drainage of the cerebral spinal fluid that bathes the brain,
or he may have developed inflammation and fluid leakage within the substance of
the brain.
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.
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