Jews pray for Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in a synagogue in Moscow yesterday. Doctors plan to begin rousing Sharon from a medically induced coma today. - REUTERS PHOTOS
JERUSALEM (AP):
DOCTORS PLAN to start bringing Ariel Sharon out of his induced coma today to determine how much brain damage the Prime Minister suffered from a massive stroke, hospital officials said yesterday.
Experts said the process could take six to eight hours and doctors should have a good idea of the extent of the damage by the end of the day.
One of Sharon's doctors said the Prime Minister - if he survives - would not be able to resume office, and acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told the Cabinet he would work to carry on Sharon's political legacy.
Sharon remained in critical condition yesterday at Jeru-salem's Hadassah Hospital after suffering a stroke late Wednesday and undergoing two lengthy surgeries to stop bleeding in his brain.
BRAIN PRESSURE NORMAL
A new brain scan yesterday showed his vital signs, including intracranial pressure, were normal, Dr. Shlomo Mor-Yosef, the hospital's director, said.
"His condition is still critical but stable, and there is improvement in the CT picture of the brain," Mor-Yosef said.
The 77-year-old Sharon, Israel's most popular politician, was seen by many here as the best hope for resolving the Israel-Palestinian conflict. His grave illness, just three months before elections, stunned Israelis and has left Middle East politics in limbo.
Geula Cohen, an old friend of Sharon's, visited him in the hospital yesterday and talked with his son Omri.
"Omri came out to me and saw my face and got really angry at me. 'What happened to you?' (he said) and 'Everything will be fine,"' she told Army Radio.
If doctors determine that Sharon is permanently incapacitated, the Cabinet would immediately meet to choose a new Prime Minister from the five sitting Cabinet ministers from Sharon's Kadima Party who are also lawmakers.
Olmert is seen as Sharon's potential heir.
