New Signs Of Recovery For Sharon

Reports He Has Moved Left Side, Area Most Affected By His Stroke

(CBS/AP) 
But on Tuesday, 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."

Because of the city's symbolic importance, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas had threatened to call off the elections if Israel banned east Jerusalem voting.

Sharon's doctors put him in a coma to give him time to heal from the recent stroke and three subsequent brain operations. They began weaning Sharon from the sedatives Monday. Despite Sharon's reported movement, doctors doubt he will recover enough to resume his duties because the bleeding in his brain was extensive.

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, where Sharon's stroke occurred.

Dr. Anthony Rudd, a stroke specialist at St. Thomas' Hospital in London, called the reports "surprising."

"It's certainly better than what I would have predicted so far. Based on the fact that he had a large hemorrhage in the right side of the brain I would have predicted advanced paralysis," Rudd said.

However, he said it was possible the movement was simply involuntary reflexes.

"It doesn't take us terribly far forward," he said. "There is still a significant risk of dying."

Sharon's doctors, however, say there is no immediate threat to Sharon's life.

Meanwhile, the Haaretz daily said Sharon was suffering from a brain disease called cerebral amyloid angiopathy. If doctors had known about the condition earlier, they would not have prescribed the blood thinners, the paper said, quoting an unidentified member of Sharon's medical team.

Rudd 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.

Sharon was given the blood thinners after his mild stroke last month, but the brain condition was discovered only after the second stroke, Haaretz said.

Hospital spokeswoman Yael Bossem-Levy declined to comment on the report.

"We are busy treating the prime minister and fighting for his life and nothing else," she said.