Hospital director: Sharon may still wake up
Prime minister Ariel Sharon may still wake up, though his condition if he does is unclear, Shlomo Mor-Yosef, director-general of Hadassah Medical Center says in conference Monday
“It is not something that has no chance (of happening),” Mor Yosef said. “We have consulted with Israeli and foreign experts in the field, and no one said that there is no chance he’ll revive. The condition he’ll be in if he wakes up remains an open question.”
Speaking at a conference on "The Media at Times of Leaders' Illnesses," Mor-Yosef referred for the first time to the decisions he had made as director of the hospital during Sharon's hospitalization.
"No one told me what to say, but common sense indicated that the things I say will have governmental and political implications," Mor-Yosef said, commenting on the statement he made in which he informed the public the PM was sedated during his first hospitalization.
"Before making this statement I consulted with the director-general of the prime minister's office and the cabinet secretary, and they consulted with the attorney general," he described.
According to Mor-Yosef, the hospital deliberately elected one spokesman that would comment on Sharon's condition, without providing any analysis.
"This is why I refrained from giving interviews to the press. I wanted to preserve Hadassah's national status. When we don't provide analysis, others do."
Misinterpreted reports
Referring to his own personal feelings while he faced hundreds of journalists from across the world daily, Mor-Yosef said: "I felt I was speaking to billions worldwide and that I represent Israel's outstanding medical system."
Mor-Yosef also spoke of the hospital's attempts to keep the PM's medical records confidential. "Horrible things were done. I prohibited writing anything about Sharon on the computer. The prime minister's medical record is being managed manually… the results of his CT scan and MRI have been erased when I learned the number of people who are looking for that information, how much money has been offered to Hadassah personnel, and how many doctors were secretly recorded on tape."
Responding to criticism against the hospital, claiming Hadassah's reports gave hope Sharon may recover, Mor-Yosef denied the allegations.
"I was never optimistic or pessimistic. Anyone who evaluated the situation one way or another did so out of his own interests. When I said Sharon moved his left hand, some wanted to read into it that tomorrow he would run the country," he said.
I am proud to say, Mor-Yosef added, that Sharon was treated differently. "He had a private nurse and doctor at his side constantly, and all the hospital's physicians, including the director, took interest in his condition," he stated.
