An operation on ailing Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was delayed yesterday after doctors found an infection in his upper respiratory tract, hospital officials said.
Sharon, 78, has been comatose since suffering a stroke on Jan. 4. Doctors yesterday had planned to reattach a portion of his skull removed immediately after the stroke. It would have been his eighth surgery since falling ill.
Hadassah Hospital spokesman Ron Krumer said the surgery would be postponed until the infection, common in patients in Sharon's condition, is gone. The infection, discovered in a routine exam early yesterday, was being treated with antibiotics, he added.
"There are no rules to how long it could take to go away. It could take one day, it could take two days, it could take two weeks," Krumer said.
Krumer said the planned operation was routine treatment for people in Sharon's condition, noting that "every opening in the body is a source for infection."
"It's his. We have to give it back at some point. We have to reattach the skull," Krumer said. He declined to say why doctors decided now was the time to reattach the skull.
"There are risks. There is no surgery without risks. The minute that you treat a person, and especially in his head, there are risks," Krumer said.
Sharon has been treated at Hadassah since the stroke. Israel's Army Radio reported that the reattachment of the skull was the last step before Sharon is moved to a long-term care facility.
Krumer refused to confirm the report, but experts in long-term care have examined Sharon in recent weeks.
The stroke suddenly removed the popular prime minister from Israel's political landscape, shortly after he formed the centrist Kadima Party. The stroke shocked Israelis, many of whom believed the ex-general would bring them a more secure future.
Kadima won last week's Israeli election, although by a smaller margin than was expected when Sharon headed the movement. Analysts have said the party's popularity was a result of Sharon's legacy.
ROCKY RELATIONS: The figures on residents come as Chinese tourist numbers drop following Beijing’s warnings to avoid traveling to Japan The number of Chinese residents in Japan has continued to rise, even as ties between the two countries have become increasingly fractious, data released on Friday showed. As of the end of December last year, the number of Chinese residents had increased by 6.5 percent from the previous year to 930,428. Chinese people accounted for 22.6 percent of all foreign residents in Japan, making them by far the largest group, Japanese Ministry of Justice data showed. Beijing has criticized Tokyo in increasingly strident terms since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi last year suggested that a military conflict around Taiwan could
Japan is to downgrade its description of ties with China from “one of its most important” in an annual diplomatic report, according to a draft reviewed by Reuters, as relations with Beijing worsen. This year’s Diplomatic Bluebook, which Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s government is expected to approve next month, would instead describe China as an important neighbor and the relationship as “strategic” and “mutually beneficial.” The draft cites a series of confrontations with Beijing over the past year, including export controls on rare earths, radar lock-ons targeting Japanese military aircraft and increased pressure around Taiwan. The shift in tone underscores a deterioration
A retired US colonel behind a privately financed rocket launch site in the Dominican Republic sees the project as a response to China’s dominance of the space race in Latin America. Florida-based Launch on Demand is slated to begin building a US$600 million facility in a remote region near the border with Haiti late this year. The project is designed to meet surging demand for the heavy-lift rockets needed to put clusters of satellites into orbit. It is also an answer to China’s growing presence in the region, said CEO Burton Catledge, a former commander of the US Air Force’s 45th Operations
Germany is considering Australia’s Ghost Bat robot fighter as it looks to select a combat drone to modernize its air force, German Minister of Defense Boris Pistorius said yesterday. Germany has said it wants to field hundreds of uncrewed fighter jets by 2029, and would make a decision soon as it considers a range of German, European and US projects developing so-called “collaborative combat aircraft.” Australia has said it will integrate the Ghost Bat, jointly developed by Boeing Australia and the Royal Australian Air Force, into its military after a successful weapons test last year. After inspecting the Ghost Bat in Queensland yesterday,
RSS