'Sad birthday' for comatose Ariel Sharon

Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon, in a coma since suffering a massive stroke last month, was 78 yesterday.

Sharon remained in a critical, but stable, condition at Jerusalem’s Hadassah Hospital, where he has been treated since the January 4 stroke. His two sons and senior aides visited his hospital room in Hadassah’s intensive care unit, praying for a recovery.

Sharon has undergone seven operations, including three brain surgeries, since being admitted to hospital. With each passing day, doctors say, his chances of regaining consciousness diminish.

“A sad birthday,” read a headline across the bottom of the front page of the Yediot Ahronot daily newspaper.

At the time of the stroke, Sharon was by far Israel’s most popular politician, though he had just carried out one of the most tempestuous policies in the nation’s history – pulling out of Gaza and part of the West Bank.

Facing lingering anger within his own Likud Party, Sharon formed a new centrist bloc called Kadima, pledging to push forward with efforts to reach a settlement with the Palestinians. Kadima immediately leaped to the top of public opinion surveys, and Sharon was poised to win his third election as prime minister.

Sharon’s closest political ally, Ehud Olmert, moved almost seamlessly into Sharon’s post, becoming acting prime minister and Kadima’s new candidate for premier in the March 28 election. Kadima retains its lead in the polls, despite Sharon’s stroke and the victory of the Hamas militant group in Palestinian elections.

Olmert opened yesterday’s Cabinet meeting with a birthday wish. “Today is the birthday of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. We all pray for his health and wish for his speedy recovery,” Olmert said.

In addition to the brain surgery, Sharon’s treatment also included an operation to remove part of his colon. The other surgeries had to do with inserting and replacing breathing and feeding tubes. In the most recent procedure, last Wednesday, doctors drained fluid from his abdominal cavity.

Raanan Gissin, a long-time Sharon adviser, said the prime minister was still on the minds of Israelis. He said people constantly stopped him on the street to ask when Sharon would wake up. Israelis are lacking “that feeling of stability that now is no longer in our daily life. We don’t have it anymore and we’re missing it very much,” he said.

The mood at Jerusalem’s Hadassah Hospital was sombre. A few well-wishers took flowers to Sharon.

“We don’t celebrate. We come, we meet with other people who share the same experience and I’d say we just pray that he will wake up,” Gissin said.

“Maybe this 78th birthday is a good opportunity to get up and see what’s happening and take the necessary steps that we’re all wishing for him to take,” he added.