Former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was transferred Friday morning to the intensive care unit at the Sheba Medical Center, after being diagnosed with an infection which caused his condition and heart function to deteriorate.
Sharon was transferred to the ICU so that doctors would be able to treat the causes of the infection. The hospital said that his condition is stable at this point.
Sheba officials said that apart from the deterioration in his heart's condition, the other systems in his body were functioning properly. A source at the hospital said that there was no imminent danger to his life, but that due to his age, such an infection may lead to a deterioration of other bodily systems.
"He is receiving intensive treatment aimed at balancing his body and containing the infection," the official explained.
The most recent worsening
in Shaorn's condition was registered in August, when he was also transferred to the ICU. A short while later
the former PM was moved back to the Respiratory Rehabilitation Unit, and the hospital then said that there has been major improvement in the condition of his lungs and kidneys.
Sharon suffered a massive stroke on Jan. 4 and has been unconscious ever since. The former PM suffered a stroke with what was described as "significant" bleeding in his brain a day before he was to check into Hadassah Hospital for a procedure to correct a tiny defect in his heart that was said to have contributed to a mild stroke he suffered two weeks earlier.
Doctors have come under fire from critics who questioned whether Sharon should have been treated with massive doses of anticoagulants after his first stroke, which was caused by a small blood clot in a cranial artery. Doctors admitted that the anticoagulants made it more difficult for them to stop the bleeding from the later hemorrhagic stroke.
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