Sharon's health is deteriorating

Sharon "not in immediate danger" but prognosis is poor.

By JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICH
omri sharon 224.88 (photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski [file])
omri sharon 224.88
(photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski [file])
Doctors managed to stabilize former prime minister Ariel Sharon's kidney function on Monday. Sharon's health took a turn for the worse on Sunday, when it was reported that his kidney function had declined and he had experienced "changes in his brain tissue." The main dangers to Ariel Sharon's life are a progression in his cerebral amyloid angiopathy, which causes the blood vessels in his brain to be fragile and break, and the risk of sepsis, in which various organs are overcome by infection, according to internal medicine specialists informed of details of the precarious condition of the former prime minister. Sharon is being treated in the respiratory rehabilitation unit at Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer. Although Sheba has declined to provide daily bulletins of Sharon's condition and will issue reports only if there is a "drastic change," The Jerusalem Post learned from specialists outside of Sheba that Sharon is not currently in immediate danger from his reduced kidney function over the past few days. Contrary to radio reports, he has not been attached to a hemodialysis machine, but he has been given diuretics to try to remove excess fluids from his body that have caused it to swell. His kidney function was somewhat stabilized on Monday, according to these experts. Sharon is also being given antibiotics to try to prevent widespread infection, as this is the most common cause of edema (accumulation of fluid in the tissues). Sepsis can lead to multiple organ failure, which ends in death except in rare cases. In any case, his prognosis over the next month or several months is very poor, the experts said. 78-year-old Sharon, who has undergone numerous operations on his brain and other organs, has been in a deep coma since he suffered a massive hemorrhagic stroke on January 4, was transferred at the end of May from Hadassah University Medical Center in Jerusalem's Ein Kerem to Sheba. Doctors there hoped to wean him off his respirator, but they have not been able to do so in during the past two months. The Hadassah Medical Organization has declined to comment officially on Sharon's deterioration or to allow doctors who treated him previously to comment. Sharon's sons and other family members are updated on an ongoing basis about his condition, the hospital said, and they are at his bedside on a permanent basis. The Sheba spokeswoman denied media reports allegedly quoting Sharon's two sons that they had been kept in the dark about the initial announcement to the media about the deterioration in his condition.