JERUSALEM – Rabbis and relatives prayed at Ariel Sharon’s bedside yesterday, as doctors said it will take days before they know whether the stricken Israeli prime minister suffered permanent damage – although they are all but certain he will never lead the nation again.
Surgeons at Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem said the good signs are that Sharon’s vital signs are stable, his brain hemorrhaging had stopped, and his eye pupils responded to stimulation.
But the Web site of the respected Haaretz daily newspaper quoted hospital officials as saying Sharon suffered vast brain damage as a result of Wednesday’s stroke.
And they held out little chance of him ever returning as prime minister.
“Regarding the future, under the current circumstances, it will not be possible,” hospital director Shlomo Mor-Yosef told reporters.
Sharon will remain under heavy sedation – a medically induced coma – and attached to a respirator until as late as Sunday morning, doctors said.
Rabbi Yitzhak Batzri and his father, leading Jewish mystic David Batzri, prayed at Sharon’s intensive-care bedside after seven hours of surgery yesterday.
“We saw the greatest doctors standing beside him and watching over him all the time and trying to treat him,” Yitzhak Batzri told Israel Radio. While reciting the prayer that Moses said over his sister Miriam’s sickbed, Rabbi David Batzri held Sharon’s hand to direct his prayer toward him, his son said. Then the Batzris prayed with Sharon’s son Gilad.
“You don’t see tears. You see hope, quiet and fortitude,” said a family friend, Rabbi David Goldman, who was also at the vigil.
Other Israelis, stunned by the sudden turn of events for the unstoppable leader they knew as “The Bulldozer,” tried to adjust to a post-Sharon era in the Mideast.
Sharon’s seat at the long Cabinet table at his office in Jerusalem was empty as acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert held an emergency meeting of Sharon’s ministers.
Olmert also had a “friendly” talk with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas by telephone and was briefed by military and intelligence brass about Israel’s nuclear arsenal, officials in Jerusalem said.
Sharon’s doctors took pains to deny rumors that the 77-year-old former general had died.
But they refused comment on news reports that he had suffered permanent brain damage.
Mor-Yosef said doctors had not received a “do not resuscitate” order that would prevent them from trying to revive Sharon if his heart or breathing failed.
“We are fighting for the life of the prime minister, with no compromise,” he told reporters.
He offered a hopeful sign when he said the surgery was on the right side of Sharon’s brain. That could make it less likely his speech and comprehension would be impaired. Another brain scan is expected to be conducted today, but no assessment is expected until Sharon comes out of his coma.
Dr. Felix Umansky, head of Sharon’s surgical team, said it may take until the middle of next week before doctors can fully assess possible damage.
Mor-Yosef said Sharon’s treatment will take time. It’s “not run with a stopwatch,” he said.
Sharon first fell ill at his Negev ranch hours before he was to undergo a minor heart procedure at Hadassah to repair a tiny hole in his heart.
After the hole was discovered, following Sharon’s minor stroke on Dec. 18, he was put on a diet and given a daily dose of the blood-thinning medication enoxaparin.
The drug may have reduced Sharon’s chance for another clot-related stroke – but increased the chances of a severe brain hemorrhage, medical authorities said.
QUOTES
“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.”
– President Bush yesterday
“You don’t see tears. You see hope, quiet and fortitude.”
– Family friend Rabbi David Goldman at his bedside