Updated: 4:10 p.m. ET Jan. 4, 2006
JERUSALEM - Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was rushed to a Jerusalem hospital late Wednesday after feeling ill, hours before he was scheduled to undergo a procedure to correct a heart defect that contributed to his Dec. 18 stroke.
Israeli media reported that Sharon apparently suffered a second stroke or possibly a heart ailment, complaining of pressure or pain in his chest.
An announcement by the prime minister’s office said Sharon, 77, was taken to Jerusalem’s Hadassah Hospital, where he was scheduled to undergo the heart procedure Thursday.
Sharon’s office said his personal physician was with him, and the Israeli leader was fully conscious. He was being taken by ambulance, a drive of more than an hour from his ranch in the Negev Desert in Israel’s south, instead of by helicopter.
Sharon is extremely overweight, but doctors checking him after the mild stroke found him otherwise in good health. Doctors said he would not suffer long-term effects from the stroke, but they discovered a birth defect in his heart that apparently contributed to the stroke.
Channel 10 News quoted Sharon’s spokesman as saying the symptoms were not severe, and it reported that he was feeling pressure or pain in his chest. The TV station had a car following Sharon’s entourage, transmitting live pictures from a cellular telephone of cars racing up the dark highway.
Another hospital, Soroka in Beersheba, is much closer to the ranch, and Israeli media were concluding that his condition was not serious. Channel 10 said the heart procedure might be advanced.
Blood thinner regimen
Since the stroke, Sharon has been taking blood thinners to try to prevent a recurrence of the clotting that caused the stroke.
Sharon was to check into the Jerusalem hospital on Thursday for the procedure — repairing a tiny hole between the upper chambers of his heart. Doctors said the blood clot that briefly lodged in Sharon’s brain on Dec. 18, causing the stroke, made its way through the hole and to a cranial artery.
Doctors plan to use a catheter to plant a patch on the hole, which is about one-eighth of an inch. Sharon is to turn over his authority to Vice Premier Ehud Olmert for about three hours while under general anesthetic and during recovery, Sharon’s office said.
It will be the first time an Israeli prime minister has relinquished authority because of illness.
There was no official word on whether the catheterization would be performed on schedule.
This is a breaking news story. Check back for details.
posted on January 4, 2006 01:49:29 PM new
Thanks from me too, chimpchamp.
I will pray for his recovery....Isreal depends on him to be the strong leader/defender he has been. I hope he survives with little destruction of his mind or body.
posted on January 4, 2006 01:59:56 PM new
Yep his weight and his age are definite factors. The article says he is 77 years old.
Who will be prime minister if he resigns his post or is unable to continue? Is there an interim in place or will there be a vacuum until a new government is elected?
posted on January 4, 2006 02:09:01 PM new
This is the update from the article link i posted above:
I am only posting the changes...
Sharon hospitalized after ‘significant’ stroke:
BREAKING NEWS
Updated: 4:54 p.m. ET Jan. 4, 2006
JERUSALEM - Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon suffered a “significant” stroke Wednesday after being brought to the hospital from his ranch in the Negev desert, a hospital official said. Minutes later, a hospital official said Sharon had suffered a cerebral hemorrhage.
Dr. Shlomo Mor-Yosef, director general of Hadassah Hospital, said Sharon was put under general anesthetic and was receiving breathing assistance while doctors assessed his condition.
Cabinet Secretary Yisrael Maimon said Sharon’s authorities have been transferred to Vice Premier Ehud Olmert.
posted on January 4, 2006 02:24:16 PM new
Although I don't find he is the best leader for Israel, I do hope he recovers from this. If not, I hope he doesn't suffer.
posted on January 4, 2006 06:25:38 PM new
This is not good.
Israel's Sharon Suffers Massive Stroke
By STEVE WEIZMAN, Associated Press Writer2 hours, 26 minutes ago
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon suffered a massive stroke Wednesday and was on a respirator after falling ill at his ranch. Doctors operated to drain excess blood from his brain.
Powers were transferred to his deputy, Vice Premier Ehud Olmert.
Dr. Shlomo Mor-Yosef, director of Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem, said Sharon suffered "a significant stroke," adding that he was "under anesthetic and receiving breathing assistance." A few minutes later, Mor-Yosef emerged to say that initial tests showed Sharon had suffered a cerebral hemorrhage, or bleeding in his brain.
Mor-Yosef said Sharon, 77 and overweight, had "massive bleeding and was being transferred to an operating theater."
Dr. Shmuel Shapira of Hadassah Hospital told Channel 10 TV that Sharon was taken to an operating room to drain the blood after suffering what he termed a "massive stroke." Israeli TV said the operation would likely take several hours.
Sharon was put in an ambulance at his ranch in the Negev Desert after complaining about feeling unwell. Shapira said the stroke developed while he was being taken to the hospital, a drive of about an hour.
Sharon's personal physician said early Thursday that he expects Sharon to emerge from surgery "safely."
"The prime minister is currently in surgery, it is proceeding properly," said Dr. Shlomo Segev. "We need to wait patiently. "I expect him to emerge from it safely."
Channel 2 TV said Sharon was suffering from paralysis in his lower body. Analysts on Israeli TV stations said his life could be in danger.
The health crisis came hours before Sharon was to undergo a procedure to seal a hole in his heart that contributed to a mild stroke on Dec. 18. Since then, Sharon has been receiving blood thinners to try to prevent a recurrence of the clotting that caused the initial stroke.
Cerebral hemorrhages account for only about 10 percent of strokes and can result either from rupture of blood vessels or leaking due to too much blood thinner medication.
Doctors who have not examined Sharon but are experts in the field said his chances of a full recovery are slim.
"It's among the most dangerous of all types of strokes," with half of victims dying within a month, said Dr. Robert A. Felberg, a neurologist at Ochsner Clinic in New Orleans. "Any time they give blood thinners to prevent clots there is a risk" that too much can cause a hemorrhage, he said.
"The fact that he's on a respirator means its extremely serious," said Dr. Philip Steig, chair of neurosurgery at Weill-Cornell Medical Center in New York. However, he said that depending on the severity of the stroke, doctors may be able to sustain Sharon on a respirator for weeks.
Sharon is about 5-foot-7 and weighs 250-300 pounds, but doctors checking him last month said he otherwise was in good health.
Cabinet Secretary Yisrael Maimon said Sharon's authority was transferred to Olmert because the premier was under general anesthetic.
The dramatic decline in Sharon's health comes as Sharon runs for re-election on March 28 at the head of a new centrist party, Kadima. He enjoys a wide lead in the polls. The party's strength is centered on Sharon, and if he were forced to step down, Israel's political scene would be thrown into turmoil.
Security agents and police spread out around the Jerusalem hospital before Sharon arrived, setting up a security perimeter. Later, they surrounded Olmert's residence in Jerusalem. Under Israeli law, Olmert is to serve as acting prime minister until Sharon can resume his powers.
On Dec. 18, Sharon was taken to Hadassah Hospital from his office after suffering the mild stroke. Doctors said he would not suffer long-term effects, but they discovered a birth defect in his heart that apparently contributed to the stroke.
Sharon had been scheduled to check into Hadassah Hospital on Thursday for a procedure to repair a tiny hole between the upper chambers of his heart. Doctors said the blood clot that briefly lodged in Sharon's brain last month, causing the mild stroke, made its way through the hole and from there to a cranial artery. Sharon first came to prominence as an army officer, setting up a unit that fought Palestinian infiltrators in the 1950s. Advancing through the ranks of the army, he served as commander of the Gaza region after Israel captured the territory in the 1967 war, launching punishing raids.
After serving in the 1973 Mideast war, Sharon left the military and entered politics, forging the hardline Likud Party, which came to power in 1977.
As defense minister, he directed Israel's ill-fated invasion of Lebanon in 1982 and was forced to step down by an Israeli commission of inquiry, which found him indirectly responsible for a massacre of Palestinians in two refugee camps by Christian Phalangist soldiers.
Sharon re-emerged as prime minister in 2001, and two years later he reversed his course of decades of support for Jewish settlement construction and expansion in the West Bank and Gaza, promoting a plan for unilateral withdrawal from Gaza and part of the West Bank. The pullout was completed in September.
The withdrawal fractured his Likud party, and he left it to form Kadima. He was putting together a list of candidates for the parliamentary election when he fell ill Wednesday.
Cheryl
"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter." - Martin Luther King, Jr.
Robertson suggests God smote Sharon
Evangelist links Israeli leader's stroke to 'dividing God's land'
Thursday, January 5, 2006; Posted: 7:08 p.m. EST (00:08 GMT)
(CNN) -- Television evangelist Pat Robertson suggested Thursday that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's stroke was divine retribution for the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, which Robertson opposed.
"He was dividing God's land, and I would say, 'Woe unto any prime minister of Israel who takes a similar course to appease the [European Union], the United Nations or the United States of America,'" Robertson told viewers of his long-running television show, "The 700 Club."
"God says, 'This land belongs to me, and you'd better leave it alone,'" he said.
Robertson's show airs on the ABC Family cable network and claims about 1 million viewers daily.
Sharon, 77, clung to life in a Jerusalem hospital Thursday after surgery to treat a severe stroke, his doctors said.
The prime minister, who withdrew Israeli settlers and troops from Gaza and parts of the West Bank last summer over heated objections from his own Likud Party, was breathing with the aid of a ventilator after doctors operated to stop the bleeding in his brain.
In Washington, President Bush offered praise for Sharon in a speech on Thursday.
"We pray for his recovery," Bush said. "He's a good man, a strong man. A man who cared deeply about the security of the Israeli people, and a man who had a vision for peace. May God bless him."
Daniel Ayalon, Israel's ambassador to the United States, compared Robertson's remarks to the overheated rhetoric of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. (Full story)
He called the comments "outrageous" and said they were not something to expect "from any of our friends."
"He is a great friend of Israel and a great friend of Prime Minister Sharon himself, so I am very surprised," Ayalon told CNN.
Robertson, 75, founded the Christian Coalition and in 1988 failed in a bid for the Republican presidential nomination. He last stirred controversy in August, when he called for the assassination of Venezuela's president, Hugo Chavez. (Full story)
Robertson later apologized, but still compared Chavez to Hitler and former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein in the process.
The same month, the Anti-Defamation League criticized Robertson for warning that God would "bring judgment" against Israel for its withdrawal from Gaza, which it had occupied since the 1967 Mideast war.
Robertson said Thursday that Sharon was "a very likable person, and I am sad to see him in this condition."
He linked Sharon's health problems to the 1995 assassination of Israeli leader Yitzhak Rabin, who signed the Oslo peace accords that granted limited self-rule to Palestinians.
"It was a terrible thing that happened, but nevertheless, now he's dead," Robertson said.
Rabin was gunned down by a religious student opposed to the Oslo accords. The killer, Yigal Amir, admitted to the crime and was sentenced to life in prison.
Rev. Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, criticized Robertson's comments Thursday, saying the televangelist "has a political agenda for the entire world."
"He seems to think God is ready to take out any world leader who stands in the way of that agenda," Lynn said in a written statement.
"A religious leader should not be making callous political points while a man is struggling for his life," he said. "I'm appalled."
Ralph Neas, president of liberal advocacy group People for the American Way, said "it is astonishing that Pat Robertson still wields substantial influence" in the Republican Party.
"Once again, Pat Robertson leaves us speechless with his insensitivity and arrogance," Neas said in a written statement.
According to The Associated Press, Robertson spokeswoman Angell Watts said of people who criticized the comments: "What they're basically saying is, 'How dare Pat Robertson quote the Bible?'"
"This is what the word of God says," Watts told the AP. "This is nothing new to the Christian community."
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posted on January 5, 2006 04:54:31 PM new
Robertson is a jack ass and a disgrace to Christians everywhere. There's a nice place waiting in Hell for him.
Cheryl
"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter." - Martin Luther King, Jr.
posted on January 5, 2006 05:12:15 PM new
"Robertson is a jack ass and a disgrace to Christians everywhere. There's a nice place waiting in Hell for him."
six months ago, I'd have argued this point, but now I have to agree. He just needs to shut up and retire.
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Quidquid Latine dictum sit altum sonatur.
posted on January 5, 2006 05:23:12 PM newMaybe he's suffering from some kind of mental breakdown.
If so, he's been having a breakdown for many, many years. You can find several sites on the Net that show you the kind of crap he has been spewing for decades.
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posted on January 5, 2006 07:11:59 PM new
You should care. There are thousands upon thousands of people in this country who cast votes based upon the hateful bile that spews from this man's mouth. Trust me, when he's in a coma there'll be more than a few who are feeling good about it.
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Habla siempre que debas y calla siempre que puedas....
