Sharon stable after five-hour surgery

ISRAELI Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s chief surgeon said last night that it was too early to assess the extent of brain damage the prime minister may have suffered after a massive stroke and two separate operations.

Dr Felix Umansky operated on Sharon for nearly five hours yesterday, after a brain scan detected an increase in cranial pressure and renewed bleeding.

“He underwent the operation very well, the CT scan was very good and he is now stable, in intensive care,” Umansky said.

Asked about possible damage, he said: “There is always some damage when you have cerebral haemorrhage.”

Dr Umansky said it was too early to tell whether Sharon was partially paralysed.

Mr Sharon suffered a massive stroke with widespread bleeding in his brain on Wednesday, and yesterday’s surgery was his second in two days.

The surgery followed a seven-hour operation on Thursday morning after Mr Sharon suffered a massive brain haemorrhage.

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.

Mr 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.

Mr 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.

Aides to Mr Sharon said they were working on the assumption he would not return to work.

Mr Sharon’s supporters prayed for his recovery. Sephardic Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar advised Israelis which Psalms to read as part of their prayers for Sharon.

Mr Sharon fell ill on Wednesday evening while he rested at his ranch in southern Israel ahead of a medical procedure scheduled for Thursday to close a small hole in his heart.

Doctors rushed him to Hadassah Hospital, instead of a hospital in nearby Beersheba, because his condition did not appear dire, Sharon aides said. He suffered the bleeding stroke during the hour-long drive to Jerusalem.

A hospital director, speaking anonymously to the Haaretz daily, said Sharon should have been in the hospital the night before his heart procedure, and he called the treatment “negligent.”