Ariel Sharon underwent emergency surgery yesterday after a brain scan revealed a rise in intracranial pressure and further bleeding in his brain, and outside experts said the prime minister's prognosis was not good.
Sharon's blood pressure also rose and one of his brain ventricles expanded slightly, said Shlomo Mor-Yosef, the director of Hadassah Hospital, where Sharon is being treated. Sharon's aides, who had rushed to the hospital to be with him during his second surgery in two days, grimly huddled outside.
"It was decided to bring the prime minister to the operating room in order to deal with these two issues, to drain the bleeding and to decrease the intracranial pressure," Mor-Yosef said.
Shimon Peres, Israel's elder statesman and a Sharon ally, said he was "very worried."
Sharon's illness threw his peace plans into turmoil 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.
The surgery yesterday followed a seven-hour operation Sharon underwent on 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.
Aides to Sharon said they were working on the assumption he would not return to work.
Yonathan Halevy, a senior doctor at Jerusalem's Shaarei Zedek Hospital who is not treating Sharon, said he was "very, very 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 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.
Yesterday morning, doctors sent him back for a brain scan to monitor his condition. After the scan, he was rushed back into the operating 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.
Sharon's supporters prayed for his recovery. Sephardic Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar advised Israelis of which psalms to read as part of their prayer's for Sharon.
Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovitch, rabbi of the Western Wall, said he received dozens of e-mails praying for Sharon's health that he printed out and stuck in the cracks of the holy site. Callers from Venezuela and the US asked for advice in praying for Sharon, he said.
Svetlana Kremitsky, a hospital worker who brings food to the patients in Sharon's ward, said the hospital was filled with worry.
"You can feel it in the air, we're all concerned," she said.
Sharon's deputy, Ehud Olmert, has taken the reins as acting prime minister. Leaders of Sharon's new Kadima Party said they would rally around Olmert.
A new poll released yesterday showed the party would still sweep March elections, even without Sharon, who formed the party after bolting his Likud Party last year to free his hands to make further peace moves with the Palestinians.
The poll published in the Yediot Ahronot daily yesterday found that an Olmert-headed Kadima would win 39 of 120 parliament seats, the most of any party and slightly less than the party polled under Sharon.
also see story:
Israeli media focus on void Sharon leaves at top
DEFENSE: The first set of three NASAMS that were previously purchased is expected to be delivered by the end of this year and deployed near the capital, sources said Taiwan plans to procure 28 more sets of M-142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), as well as nine additional sets of National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS), military sources said yesterday. Taiwan had previously purchased 29 HIMARS launchers from the US and received the first 11 last year. Once the planned purchases are completed and delivered, Taiwan would have 57 sets of HIMARS. The army has also increased the number of MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) purchased from 64 to 84, the sources added. Each HIMARS launch pod can carry six Guided Multiple Launch Rocket Systems, capable of
Tropical Storm Podul strengthened into a typhoon at 8pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, with a sea warning to be issued late last night or early this morning. As of 8pm, the typhoon was 1,020km east of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, moving west at 23kph. The storm carried maximum sustained winds of 119kph and gusts reaching 155kph, the CWA said. Based on the tropical storm’s trajectory, a land warning could be issued any time from midday today, it added. CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said Podul is a fast-moving storm that is forecast to bring its heaviest rainfall and strongest
TRAJECTORY: The severe tropical storm is predicted to be closest to Taiwan on Wednesday and Thursday, and would influence the nation to varying degrees, a forecaster said The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said it would likely issue a sea warning for Tropical Storm Podul tomorrow morning and a land warning that evening at the earliest. CWA forecaster Lin Ting-yi (林定宜) said the severe tropical storm is predicted to be closest to Taiwan on Wednesday and Thursday. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was moving west at 21kph and packing sustained winds of 108kph and gusts of up to 136.8kph, the CWA said. Lin said that the tropical storm was about 1,710km east of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, with two possible trajectories over the next one
GET TO SAFETY: Authorities were scrambling to evacuate nearly 700 people in Hualien County to prepare for overflow from a natural dam formed by a previous typhoon Typhoon Podul yesterday intensified and accelerated as it neared Taiwan, with the impact expected to be felt overnight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, while the Directorate-General of Personnel Administration announced that schools and government offices in most areas of southern and eastern Taiwan would be closed today. The affected regions are Tainan, Kaohsiung and Chiayi City, and Yunlin, Chiayi, Pingtung, Hualien and Taitung counties, as well as the outlying Penghu County. As of 10pm last night, the storm was about 370km east-southeast of Taitung County, moving west-northwest at 27kph, CWA data showed. With a radius of 120km, Podul is carrying maximum sustained
RSS