Sharon Dodges Death

Doctors removed one-third of Ariel Sharon's large intestine in a four-hour emergency surgery Saturday, the Israeli prime minister's seventh operation since he suffered a massive stroke and slipped into a coma five weeks ago. The latest complication further dimmed already slim hopes of any recovery.

Israelis closely followed their 77-year-old leader's latest ordeal, with TV stations repeatedly breaking into regular programming for updates, but the country already has come to terms with his departure from politics.

Sharon's political heir, Ehud Olmert, quickly took the reins as acting prime minister after Sharon's Jan. 4 stroke, and appears poised to lead Sharon's centrist Kadima Party to victory in March 28 elections.

Sharon was rushed to surgery Saturday morning after doctors, who had noticed abdominal swelling, conducted a CT scan and a laparoscopy, or insertion of a small camera through the abdominal wall.

Surgeons detected necrotic, or dead, tissue in the bowels and removed 20 inches of the right large intestine, said Hadassah Hospital director Dr. Shlomo Mor-Yosef.

The necrosis was either caused by infection or a drop in the blood-supply to the intestines, something common in comatose patients, the hospital director said. Mor-Yosef said doctors did not find blocked blood vessels.

Mor-Yosef said Saturday's surgery was relatively simple, and that Sharon's main medical problem continues to be the coma. Asked whether Sharon could come out of the coma, Mor-Yosef said: "All possibilities remain open, but with each passing day, the chances are lower."

Since the stroke, Sharon has been hooked up to feeding and breathing tubes.

Dr. R. Sean Morrison, a professor of geriatrics at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City, said that "long-term comatose patients typically die of complications like this," referring to necrosis.

Morrison said Sharon's prognosis was extremely grave even before the latest complication, and that chances for survival or now "extremely small, almost zero."

In recent months, the obese Sharon had repeatedly brushed aside questions about his health, but his condition became an issue after he suffered a mild stroke Dec. 18.

At the time, Sharon was at the height of his popularity, following last summer's successful pullout from the Gaza Strip and his break with the hardline Likud Party.

Voters widely expected Sharon to draw Israel's final borders, with or without the Palestinians, if elected for a third term. Polls suggested Kadima would become by far the largest party in parliament.

After his mild stroke, aides played down his health problems, while doctors treated him with anti-clotting agents and scheduled a minor heart procedure for Jan. 5. Just hours before the scheduled procedure, Sharon suffered a massive stroke, including heavy bleeding in the brain, and slipped into a coma.

After being admitted to Hadassah on Jan. 4, Sharon underwent three back-to-back brain surgeries. These were followed by three smaller procedures, including insertions of feeding and breathing tubes, a sign that doctors were preparing for a long-term coma. Throughout the past five weeks, he had been in critical but stable condition.

Before dawn Saturday, Sharon's condition deteriorated sharply and his life was in danger, hospital officials said. After consultation with his sons, Omri and Gilad, doctors decided to operate, said Mor-Yosef.