Israeli Prime Minister Sharon to be sedated for up to three days

~ The prime minister underwent seven hours of surgery to stop bleeding in his brain.

JERUSALEM -- Prime Minister Ariel Sharon could be sedated for up to three days as doctors fight to keep him alive after emergency brain surgery for his massive stroke, a hospital official said Thursday.

Dr. Shlomo Mor-Yosef, director general of Hadassah Hospital, said Sharon would remain in deep sedation and on a respirator for at least two and possibly three days to allow him to "recover from severe trauma." The treatment would decrease pressure in Sharon's skull, and after the sedation period, doctors hope to gradually awaken him, Mor-Yosef said.

Sharon, who underwent seven hours of emergency surgery to stop widespread bleeding in his brain, was in serious but stable condition. The massive stroke made it unlikely that the 77-year-old prime minister would return to power.

Mor-Yosef said doctors had not received a "no resuscitation order" that would prevent them from trying to revive a patient whose heart or breathing has stopped.

'No compromise'

"We are fighting for the life of the prime minister, with no compromise," Mor-Yosef said.

Israeli TV's Channel 2 station quoted an unidentified senior hospital official as saying Sharon was not in a vegetative state, and Mor-Yosef sought to quash widespread rumors that the prime minister was brain dead.

Sharon's pupils were responding to light, "which means the brain is functioning," Mor-Yosef said at a news conference. Other doctors not involved in his treatment said this was a positive sign of independent brain activity.

Mor-Yosef said the surgery was carried out on the right side of Sharon's brain. That could make it less likely that his speech and comprehension would be impaired. The doctor said it was too early to assess whether there would be any paralysis.

Vice Premier Ehud Olmert was named acting prime minister and convened the Cabinet for a special session, where Sharon's large chair at the center of the long oval table remained empty. "This is a difficult situation that we are not accustomed to," Olmert told the somber ministers.

A brain scan after surgery showed that the bleeding had been stopped, and he was transferred to the intensive care unit, Mor-Yosef said earlier in the day.

'The last battle'

Sharon's sudden illness, at the height of his popularity, stunned Israelis who had relied on the tough ex-general to steer them through turbulent times. Rabbis called on Israelis to flock to synagogues and say special prayers.

The daily newspaper Yediot Ahronot ran a headline that said: "The last battle."

Palestinians followed reports on Sharon's condition with a mix of apprehension and glee, and some officials said they feared the dramatic events would derail Jan. 25 parliament elections in the West Bank and Gaza. Despite his pullout from Gaza last year, Sharon is still widely reviled in the Arab world for his tough actions against Palestinians.

Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas called Olmert to express his concern and told him that Palestinians hope Sharon will recover quickly, according to a statement from Olmert's office. Abbas' office confirmed the conversation and said it was "friendly."

Olmert told Abbas that Sharon had expressed his "great interest" in strengthening the relations between Israeli and Palestinians and advancing the peace process, the statement from Olmert's office said.

Abbas said earlier that Sharon's health crisis would not put off the Palestinian elections.

Sharon's sons, Omri and Gilad, were at their father's bedside. Rabbi David Grossman, a family friend, said of them: "You don't see tears. You see hope, quiet and fortitude."

Close Sharon associates said they did not expect him to return to office.

Despite the illness, Israel's March 28 elections also will be held as scheduled, Attorney General Meni Mazuz said after the Cabinet meeting. Sharon had been expected to easily win re-election at the head of the moderate Kadima Party he created to free his hands for further peace moves with the Palestinians.

The best hope

Many Israelis see Sharon -- an overweight war hero and longtime hawk who changed tack and withdrew from the Gaza Strip last year -- as the best hope for achieving a peace deal with the Palestinians. His illness would create a power vacuum in the government and cloud Kadima's prospects.

Sharon was put in an ambulance at his ranch Wednesday evening after complaining of feeling ill. The stroke came during the hourlong drive to Hadassah, Dr. Shmuel Shapira told Channel 10 TV.

Doctors at Hadassah put him on a respirator and began emergency surgery about midnight (4 p.m. CST) Wednesday. They said they had stopped the bleeding during initial surgery, but Sharon was sent back to the operating room because a brain scan showed he required more treatment.

The surgery apparently had been complicated by an anticoagulant Sharon took following a mild stroke Dec. 18. The medication may also have contributed to Wednesday's stroke. Sharon originally had been scheduled to undergo a procedure Thursday to seal a hole in his heart that contributed to the initial stroke.

Independent experts said that while the medication, an anticoagulant called enoxaparin, did not cause the blood vessel in Sharon's head to burst, the bleeding would probably not have been so severe if he had not been taking it.

Mor-Yosef defended the treatment, saying Sharon was given appropriate doses.

He did not give a prognosis, but neurosurgeons not involved in Sharon's treatment said a full recovery was not likely following such a massive stroke -- especially because of the length of the surgery.

"For them to have to go back in twice, that's not good," said Dr. Emil Popovic, a neurosurgeon at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital in Perth, Australia. "At 77, not too many people make a good recovery from a brain hemorrhage."

U.S. National Security Council official Elliott Abrams and State Department official David Welch were to have met with Sharon's top adviser Thursday evening to try to settle a dispute about the Palestinian election, but the trip was rescheduled for the weekend. The Japanese prime minister also put off a visit.

Israelis and world leaders expressed concern and offered prayers for Sharon.

President Bush praised Sharon as "a man of courage and peace," saying he and first lady Laura Bush "share the concerns of the Israeli people ... and we are praying for his recovery."

Israeli financial markets were roiled by the news. The shekel seesawed throughout the day, and the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange's blue chip TA-25 index, which plunged as much as 6.2 percent in early trading, ended down 3.9 percent in heavy trading.

Arab TV broadcasters beamed out largely straightforward, nonstop live coverage about Sharon.

Ahmed Jibril, a radical Palestinian leader in Damascus, Syria, called the stroke a gift from God.

Sharon aide Raanan Gissin warned that if any of Israel's foes tried to "exploit this situation ... the security forces and IDF (Israeli military) are ready for any kind of challenge."

But a Palestinian commentator on the Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya network offered Sharon unexpected praise as "the first Israeli leader who stopped claiming Israel had a right to all of the Palestinians' land," a reference to Israel's Gaza withdrawal.

"A live Sharon is better for the Palestinians now, despite all the crimes he has committed against us," said Ghazi al-Saadi.

By law, Olmert assumed the post of acting prime minister for 100 days. An election will then held, apparently on March 28. If Sharon should die, the Cabinet would choose a replacement, said legal analyst Moshe Negbi.

Sharon has been prominent in Israeli life for more than five decades, advancing through the ranks of the army and gaining attention in the 1967 war. He left the military for politics, forging the hard-line Likud Party, which came to power in 1977.

As defense minister, he directed Israel's ill-fated invasion of Lebanon in 1982 during which an Israeli commission found him indirectly responsible for a massacre of Palestinians in the Sabra and Chatilla refugee camps by Christian Phalangist soldiers.

Sharon re-emerged as prime minister in 2001 soon after the outbreak of a new round of Israeli-Palestinian violence. Two years later, he reversed his decades-long course of supporting Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza, pushing through a plan to withdraw from Gaza and part of the West Bank. The pullout was completed in September.

The withdrawal fractured Likud, and he bolted to form Kadima. He was compiling a list of candidates for the election when he fell ill.

In the election, Sharon was to face off against Likud's candidate, former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Amir Peretz, the union leader who recently took control of the dovish Labor Party. Olmert, who could emerge as Sharon's successor as head of Kadima, would likely have a far tougher time in the election than Sharon.