Prime Minister Ariel Sharon will undergo surgery on Tuesday afternoon to close a hole doctors made in his head during previous operations, hospital officials said.
The purpose of the surgery is to allow the transfer of Sharon, comatose since a January 4 stroke, to a rehabilitation department.
After the operation, Sharon will most likely be transferred to the Sheba Medical Center in Tel Hashomer, near Tel Aviv, as demanded by his family members.
Prof. Shlomo Mor-Yosef, the head of Jerusalem’s Hadassah Hospital in Ein Kerem, where Sharon has been hospitalized since the stroke, already said in the past that the prime minister will be taken to a rehabilitation center after the elections.
The hospital refused to name the surgeons who will perform the surgery.
Prior to January’s massive stroke Sharon suffered a mild stroke in December, after which doctors discovered a hole in his heart and recommended an angioplasty to close the hole.
Series of emergency operations
One day before the scheduled operation Sharon suffered a massive stroke, and he has been in a coma since.
Sharon underwent a number of emergency operations after the stroke, mainly to stop brain hemorrhages.
A large section of his digestive system was removed in a separate surgery after doctors identified damage in his intestines.
Doctors failed to rouse Sharon from a medically induced coma and have described his condition as serious but stable.
A number of leading coma specialists were invited to Jerusalem to advice on how best to treat Sharon, but the team of surgeons treating the prime minister refused to reveal the recommendation they had been given.
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