Sharon Recovering From Brain Surgery

With Prime Minister Ariel Sharon recovering from emergency brain surgery Saturday, his doctors said it was still too early to assess how much damage the Israeli leader has suffered from a massive stroke. Independent experts said the prognosis remained grim.

An official determination on Sharon’s condition will likely take place Sunday, when doctors plan to wean him off the drugs that are keeping him in a state they described as a medically induced coma.

Sharon, 77, underwent five hours of emergency brain surgery Friday that doctors said successfully stopped a hemorrhage and relieved swelling inside his skull. Although doctors reported “significant improvement” after the surgery, Sharon remained in serious condition.

Hadassah hospital spokesman Ron Krumar said Saturday there had been no change in the prime minister’s condition. He was taken for a brain scan Saturday morning, which was a planned procedure, Krumer said. No further details were immediately available.

“There is always some damage when you have cerebral hemorrhage,” Dr. Felix Umansky, the chief neurosurgeon operating on Sharon, told The Associated Press. “We cannot assess the damage because he is under anesthesia all the time. We need to wait and see what will happen once we reduce the medication which keeps him under sedation.”

Sharon suffered the stroke, his second in less than three weeks, late Wednesday, throwing the country into turmoil. His deputy, Ehud Olmert, was quickly named the acting prime minister.

Olmert took calls from Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Friday, a sign that the Israeli government was moving ahead without its hard-charging leader.

Rice, who canceled a six-day trip to Indonesia and Australia, told Olmert that “every U.S. citizen, from the president to the last citizen, are praying for Sharon’s health,” Olmert’s office said.

Key members in Sharon’s Kadima Party said they would rally around Olmert, easing concerns that the movement, founded by Sharon two months ago, might fracture in his absence. A new poll showed Kadima emerging victorious in March 28 elections under Olmert’s leadership.

Palestinian leaders, holding a parliamentary election of their own Jan. 25, said they were also in touch with Israeli officials about Sharon’s condition. “We are closely monitoring the situation,” Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said.

As the Sabbath descended on the Jewish state on Friday evening, the vigil for Sharon became increasingly somber. The Israeli leader’s aides prayed at the hospital and elder statesmen Shimon Peres said he was “very worried” about his old friend.

Sharon’s sons, Omri and Gilad, camped out in a room next to their father’s at the neurological intensive care unit.

Sephardic Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar took to the airwaves to advise Israelis which psalms to read for Sharon. “All that is left to do is to pray,” said Israel’s other chief rabbi, Yona Metzger.

With little hope that Sharon would return to power, Israelis mostly clung to memories of the charismatic leader who left his mark on almost every aspect of Israeli life, fighting in all its battles and capping his legacy as an immensely popular prime minister.

“He’s like an old car. You know they don’t make old cars like that anymore,” said Haim Zanko, 23, of Tel Aviv, who prayed for Sharon at the Western Wall.

Synagogues across the country were expected to mention Sharon by name in the special prayer for the ill recited in services Saturday morning.

Sharon, who underwent seven hours of surgery following his stroke, was rushed back into the operating room Friday morning after a brain scan indicated rising cranial pressure and further brain hemorrhaging.

Hospital director Dr. Shlomo Mor-Yosef said the new surgery helped stabilize Sharon’s condition. He said a comparison of brain scans before and after the surgery showed “significant improvement,” but he did not elaborate.

Independent doctors said Sharon’s chances for recovery were slim, and Sharon’s aides said they were working on the assumption he would not return to work.

The bleeding and swelling treated Friday, while not unexpected, are life-threatening complications that make the prospect of survival ever slimmer, said Dr. Anthony Rudd, a stroke specialist at St. Thomas’ Hospital in London.

“It sounds like a last desperate attempt to salvage something, but the prognosis must now be terrible,” he said.

Noting that a CT scan shows the structure not the function of the brain, Rudd said the improvement that Sharon’s doctors referred to likely applies to the reduction of swelling seen in the earlier scan.

Sharon’s stroke came hours before doctors were scheduled to repair a hole in his heart discovered after Sharon’s mild stroke on Dec. 18.

Sharon’s grave condition threw Israeli politics into flux less than three months before national elections. Israeli officials said the elections would proceed as scheduled regardless of Sharon’s fate.

The new poll released Friday showed Kadima would still sweep the vote, even without Sharon, who formed the party after bolting the hardline Likud last year following Israel’s withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. Kadima’s platform seeks a compromise for peace with the Palestinians.

The poll published in the Yediot Ahronot daily found that an Olmert-headed Kadima would win 39 of 120 parliament seats, slightly fewer than the party polled under Sharon but enough to lead the next government.

The poll of 500 people was taken Thursday and had a margin of error of 4.4 percentage points. Some pollsters said the results might be influenced by sympathy for Sharon and could change during the campaign.

The poll showed Peres would net 42 seats as Kadima leader, but analysts said it was unlikely he would be chosen to lead the party. Peres met with Olmert on Friday but did not give details of their talk.