Jerusalem – Prime Minister Ariel Sharon showed “slight improvement” in his recovery from a massive stroke by moving his left hand today, but doctors said they still cannot assess his abilities to think and reason as they gradually reduce the anesthesia keeping him in a coma.
Doctors also said Sharon’s life was not in immediate danger.
“I think compared with recent days … there are significant changes in the prime minister’s condition, but we still have a long way to go, and we have to be patient,” said Dr. Yoram Weiss, one of Sharon’s anesthesiologists.
Sharon’s sons also spoke to him, and the 77-year-old leader’s blood pressure increased.
Sharon is recovering from a cerebral hemorrhage and widespread bleeding in the right side of his brain that he suffered Wednesday.
As doctors began decreasing Sharon’s dose of sedatives to remove him from an induced coma Monday, he moved his right hand and right leg slightly in response to pain stimulation.
Today, the movement on Sharon’s right side increased, and he also moved his left hand, said Dr. Shlomo Mor-Yosef, the director of Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem.
“These are neurological changes that show slight improvement in Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s brain functioning,” he said.
Movement on Sharon’s left side could be very significant because that part of the body is controlled by the right side of the brain.
Over the next 24 hours, the doctors will continue decreasing Sharon’s sedatives and conducting neurological tests to assess his brain functions, his doctors said.
Weiss said doctors would have to wait several days, until the sedatives have worn off entirely, before assessing the leader’s brain function.
“There is improvement, but we still can’t know the extent of the cognitive improvement,” Weiss said. “There are still drugs that could cause us not to see cognitive improvement.” Sharon remains in critical condition and his life is not in immediate danger, Weiss said.
“More metaphorically speaking, we have backed off five yards from the edge of the cliff,” he said.
Dr. Charles Weisman, another of Sharon’s doctors, said music was being played in Sharon’s room and his blood pressure rose when his sons spoke to him. The music being played included Mozart and Israeli singer Rivka Zohar.
Sharon’s son, Omri, came out of the hospital today to thank Israelis, the hospital and its doctors.
“I came to thank, in the name of my family, the citizens of Israel, who since Wednesday have supported us with their concern, with warm and loving prayers for the well-being of my father,” he said.
Also, an Israeli newspaper reported that Sharon was suffering from a brain disease that, in combination with the blood thinners he started taking after an initial stroke Dec. 18, could have increased his risk for another stroke.
The Haaretz daily said doctors had not discovered the disease, called cerebral amyloid angiopathy, when they treated Sharon for the first stroke. But Mor-Yosef said doctors did know about it.
Dr. Anthony Rudd, a stroke specialist at St. Thomas’ Hospital in London, said the condition is a common cause of bleeding in the brain, particularly in the elderly, but hard to diagnose without a biopsy.
“This protein, amyloid … is deposited in the walls of the arteries, and it makes the walls of the arteries much more fragile and liable to rupture,” he said. “And very often, there is a high risk of recurrent bleeding.” He said the blood thinners would not have caused the hemorrhage but would worsen the bleeding.
A final medical analysis on Sharon’s long-term prognosis would end days of uncertainty over the fate of the prime minister, heralded by many as the best hope for Mideast peace.
On that front, Israel’s defense minister said Israel will permit Arabs in Jerusalem to vote in Palestinian elections scheduled for Jan. 25. The decision appeared to resolve a standoff that had threatened to derail the balloting and heighten frictions between Israel and the Palestinians at this sensitive time.
The issue was widely seen as a key test for acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
Also today, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called Olmert to check on Sharon’s condition. Olmert told her he spoke to hospital officials and was encouraged by Sharon’s improvement, and Rice said she was praying for Sharon’s recovery, a statement from Olmert’s office said.
Sharon’s doctors put him in a coma to give him time to heal from the recent stroke and three subsequent brain operations. Despite Sharon’s reported movements, doctors doubt he will recover enough to resume his duties because the bleeding in his brain was extensive.
Before the stroke, Sharon had been expected to handily win re-election in March 28 parliamentary balloting, then use his third term to try to draw Israel’s final borders by pulling out of large parts of the West Bank and completing a separation barrier with the Palestinians.
More clarity on Sharon’s condition might enable his new, centrist Kadima Party to select a successor and start campaigning.
Olmert – Sharon’s ally and a proponent of unilateral withdrawals from more Palestinian-claimed lands – is seen as the most likely heir.
Olmert’s first diplomatic test as acting prime minister was whether to let Palestinians vote in east Jerusalem in parliamentary elections.
Israel had been threatening to prevent voting in Jerusalem because it was reluctant to be seen as granting any kind of legitimacy to the Islamic group Hamas, which is committed to Israel’s destruction and is running in the balloting.
But today, Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said Arab residents of Jerusalem could vote.
“I think the policy of the state of Israel still stands,” Mofaz told reporters in Jerusalem. “There will be elections in east Jerusalem.” Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said he had not heard anything official from Israel.
“If this is the case, I welcome this position of the Israeli government,” he said.
Jerusalem is one of the most sensitive issues in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Israel claims all of the city as its capital, and the Palestinians claim the eastern sector as capital of a future state.
Because of the city’s symbolic importance, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas had threatened to call off the elections if Israel banned east Jerusalem voting.
