JERUSALEM - Former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was taken out of
intensive care Monday morning, four days after he was admitted for a dangerous
infection, the Chaim Sheba Medical Center announced.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon
spreaks during the weekly cabinet meeting at his Jerusalem office, Sunday,
July 17, 2005. Former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was taken Friday to an
intensive care unit after his overall condition and heart function
deteriorated, a spokesman for the hospital said Friday Nov. 3, 2006.
[AP]
|
Sharon, comatose since suffering a stroke in January, had been moved to
intensive care on Thursday when the infection attacked his heart.
The hospital said Monday that doctors treated the infection and transferred
Sharon back to the respiratory ward, where he has been hospitalized since being
moved to Sheba from a Jerusalem hospital in May.
Sharon had a small stroke in December and was put on blood thinners before
experiencing a severe brain hemorrhage on January 4 and falling into a coma.
Sharon, 78, has undergone several extensive brain operations to stop cerebral
hemorrhaging, in addition to several minor procedures. He was rushed to
intensive care in July for dialysis after his kidneys began failing, but was
transferred back to Sheba after his condition improved.
Experts have speculated that because of the severity of his stroke, Sharon,
Israel's prime minister from 2001 to 2006, is unlikely to regain consciousness.
Sharon's stroke came just months after he ended Israel's 38-year occupation
of the Gaza Strip and bolted his hard-line Likud Party to form the centrist
Kadima faction. After the stroke, Sharon's successor, Ehud Olmert, led Kadima to
victory in a March 28 vote and became prime minister.
