Sharon improves but prognosis still dire
(AP)
Updated: 2006-01-07 09:02

Mor-Yosef said a comparison of brain scans before and after the surgery showed "significant improvement," but he did not elaborate.

The chief neurosurgeon operating on Sharon, Dr. Felix Umansky, said he came through the surgery well but was likely to have suffered damage.

"There is always some damage when you have cerebral hemorrhage," he said in a telephone interview. "We cannot assess the damage because he is under anesthesia all the time. We need to wait and see what will happen once we reduce the medication which keeps him under sedation."

Hospital officials said Sharon would remain in the medically induced coma until at least noon Sunday to give him time to heal.

It was unclear whether the new bleeding was from a second rupture of the same blood vessel that caused the original massive stroke or a break in another vessel, which would constitute a new stroke. New bleeding from the stroke-causing blood vessel in the first few days after a hemorrhagic stroke is a common cause of death in patients. Another chief killer of such patients is swelling of the brain.

Independent doctors said Sharon's chances for recovery were slim, and Sharon's aides said they were working on the assumption he would not return to work.

Shlomo Mor-Yosef, Hadassah Hospital director, updates the media on Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's medical condition outside the hospital in Jerusalem January 5, 2006.[Reuters]

"One feels slightly more positive about the outcome because some of the problems have been able to be reversed, but the underlying problem remains. He still had further bleeding and that doesn't change the prognosis, which still looks dire," said Dr. Anthony Rudd, a stroke specialist at St. Thomas' Hospital in London.

Noting that a CT scan shows the structure — not the function — of the brain, Rudd said the improvement that Sharon's doctors referred to likely applies to the reduction of swelling seen in the earlier scan.

The surgery Friday followed a seven-hour operation Sharon underwent Thursday after he suffered a massive brain hemorrhage as he rode in an ambulance to the hospital from his ranch in southern Israel.

Sharon's grave condition threw Israeli politics into flux less than three months before national elections. Israeli officials said the elections would proceed as scheduled regardless of Sharon's fate.

The new poll released Friday showed Kadima would still sweep the vote, even without Sharon, who formed the party after bolting the hardline Likud last year following Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. Kadima's platform seeks a compromise for peace with the Palestinians.

The poll published in the Yediot Ahronot daily Friday found that an Olmert-headed Kadima would win 39 of 120 parliament seats, slightly fewer than the party polled under Sharon but enough to lead the next government.

The poll of 500 people was taken Thursday and had a margin of error of 4.4 percentage points. Some pollsters said the results might be influenced by sympathy for Sharon and could change during the campaign.

The poll showed Peres would net 42 seats as Kadima leader, but analysts said it was unlikely he would be chosen to lead the party. Peres met with Olmert on Friday but did not give details of their talk.

"We will know how to continue Israel's policy ... to continue Ariel Sharon's policies," Peres said.

As Israelis rushed to prepare for the Sabbath, many were fatalistic.

"It's very sad that he's going," Itzik Gordon, a 48-year-old contractor, said of Sharon. "He was a real leader, from the establishment of the state until now."