Israel's Sharon Rushed To Hospital

[Gold9472]

Israel's Sharon Rushed to Hospital

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060104/ap_on_re_mi_ea/israel_sharon

3 minutes ago

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 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.

[Partridge]

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was taken for surgery on Wednesday after suffering a cerebral hemorrhage, the director of Jerusalem's Hadassah Hospital said.

"The diagnosis is cerebral hemorrhaging. In light of this, the prime minister has been taken to the surgical ward," Dr. Shlomo Mor-Yosef told reporters. Sharon was in critical condition and may not recover, a senior political source said.

"It looks very bad. I don't know if he will recover," the source said.


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Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has suffered a "significant" stroke, a hospital official said today, after Sharon was taken to the hospital from his ranch in the Negev desert.

Dr Shlomo Mor-Yosef said Sharon is under general anesthetic and is receiving breathing assistance as his condition is assessed.

Cabinet Secretary Yisrael Maimon said Sharon's authorities have been transferred to his vice premier, Olmert.

In a brief statement outside the hospital, Mor-Yosef said initial tests showed Sharon had suffered a cerebral haemorrhage, or bleeding inside his brain.

"The diagnosis is cerebral haemorrhaging. In light of this, the prime minister has been taken to the surgical ward," Dr. Shlomo Mor-Yosef told reporters.

Channel 2 TV said Sharon was suffering from paralysis in his lower body. Analysts on Israeli TV stations said he life could be in danger. Channel 2 TV said he was taken into the hospital on a stretcher.

Sharon, 77, is extremely overweight, but doctors checking him after the mild stroke December 18 found him otherwise in good health. Since then, his doctors said in a briefing a week ago, Sharon has lost several kilograms.

The dramatic downturn in Sharon's health comes as Sharon runs for re-election on March 28 at the head of a new centrist party, Kadima, and he enjoys a wide lead in the polls.

The party's strength is centered on Sharon himself, and if he were forced to leave the scene. Israel's political scene would be thrown into turmoil.

Sharon's office said his personal physician was with him. He was taken by ambulance, a drive of more than an hour from his ranch in the Negev Desert in Israel's south, instead of by helicopter.

On December 18, Sharon was taken to Hadassah Hospital from his office after suffering a mild stroke.

Doctors said he would not suffer long-term effects from the stroke, but they discovered a birth defect in his heart that apparently contributed to the stroke.

Security agents and police spread out around the Jerusalem hospital before Sharon arrived, setting up a security perimeter.

Since the first stroke, Sharon has been receiving blood thinners to try to prevent a recurrence of the clotting that caused the stroke.

Sharon was to check into the Jerusalem hospital on Thursday for the procedure - repairing a tiny hole between the upper chambers of his heart.

Doctors said the blood clot that briefly lodged in Sharon's brain on Dec.
18, causing the stroke, made its way through the hold and from there to a cranial artery.

Sharon was in critical condition and may not recover, a senior political source said.

"It looks very bad. I don't know if he will recover," the source said.

AP

[Gold9472]

What will happen if he dies?

[Partridge]

I don't know. Even if he doesn't die, I think he'll be in no state to be PM or run for re-election - I think this is the end of the line for Sharon.

I guess it will mean a probable end to this (ahem) centrist 'Forward' party venture, I can't see Shimon Perez holding it together on his own. It will make the new election largely between a far more rightwing Likud under Nethanyathu, and a Labour Party that can't decide where it stands. Wouldn't surprise me if we ended up with another Lik/Lab government of national unity with Amir Peretz shedding any Leftism he may preach during the elections.