Israeli Prime Minister elect Ariel Sharon prays at the Western Wall in Jerusalem's Old city in this February 7, 2001 file picture. - REUTERS
JERUSALEM (AP):
PRIME MINISTER Ariel Sharon began breathing on his own yesterday and moved his right hand and right leg in response to pain stimulation after doctors began bringing him out of an induced coma to assess the damage caused by his massive stroke, doctors said.
Sharon's response was "a very important sign" and indicated that his brain stem was working, but it was still too early to assess what impact the massive bleeding he suffered on the right part of his brain would have on his cognitive abilities or on the left side of his body, said Dr. Felix Umansky, the chief neurosurgeon treating Sharon.
"We are just at the beginning of a very long way," Umansky said, adding that it will take several days to make a fuller evaluation.
"The moment that the prime minister is able to talk to us and to sit up one can say there will no longer be danger to his life," he said. "Once he is conscious and with us and all his systems are functioning and there are no complications, such as an infection or something else, I will be ready to say he's out of danger."
REDUCED SEDATIVES
Sharon remained in critical condition and on sedatives yesterday, though at a lower level than before. Umansky said they would continue reducing Sharon's sedatives over the next few days in hopes that he will have a greater response to stimulation, including opening his eyes.
Doctors made the decision to reduce Sharon's anaesthesia after a round of consultations yesterday. As the sedatives levels dropped, Sharon began breathing on his own, though he remained connected to the respirator, Hadassah Hospital director Dr. Shlomo Mor-Yosef said.
Doctors performed several pain tests on Sharon throughout the day and Sharon slightly lifted his right hand and leg and his blood pressure rose, Mor-Yosef said.
"It was a slight, but significant, movement," he said.
Sharon's ability to breathe on his own means that the respiratory centre of his brain is working, but it does not indicate activity in other parts of his brain or even whether he will survive, experts said. Outside doctors said that since Sharon suffered most of the damage to the right side of his brain, he has a greater chance of regaining his speech and comprehension, which are controlled by the left side.
One of Sharon's neurosurgeons has cautioned that it was unlikely he could function as Prime Minister again, but Umansky said it was too early to make such a determination.
Doctors kept Sharon in a medically induced coma and on a respirator since last Thursday to give him time to heal from the trauma of the stroke and three brain surgeries. Umansky said the doctors could put Sharon under again if his condition worsens.
After doctors make a final assessment on the damage Sharon suffered, they were to alert Attorney-General Meni Mazuz, who will then decide whether to declare the prime minister permanently incapacitated. "The minute we know what damage has occurred, we will talk," Justice Ministry spokesman Yaakov Galanti said.
NO URGENCY FOR DECLARATION
Since an acting Prime Minister is in place, there is no urgency for such a declaration, Galanti added. Ehud Olmert, Sharon's deputy, was named Acting Prime Minister after Sharon suffered the stroke last Wednesday, and can serve in that role for 100 days.
In the event the attorney-general declares permanent incapacitation, the Cabinet would have to elect a new prime minister within 24 hours, from among the five sitting Cabinet ministers from Sharon's Kadima Party who are also lawmakers, Galanti said.
That group includes Olmert, a potential political heir.
The 77-year-old Sharon, Israel's most popular politician, was seen by many here as the best hope for resolving the Israel-Palestinian conflict. His abrupt illness and expected departure from the Mideast political stage has raised concern that momentum on territorial concessions, created by his recent Gaza Strip withdrawal, would be stopped, and that Sharon's successor wouldn't have the stature to forge ahead on drawing Israel's final borders.
