With &to=http://english.pravda.ru/world/2003/01/13/41963.html' target=_blank>Ariel Sharon's condition gradually improving, doctors hoped Wednesday to completely remove him from sedatives soon _ a process that could take a day and a half _ so they can begin assessing what brain damage he suffered from a massive stroke.
Meanwhile, new polls showed that Sharon's &to=http://english.pravda.ru/politics/2005/12/04/69135.html' target=_blank>Kadima Party would easily win March 28 elections and had even gained strength since the popular prime minister fell ill last week. With Sharon in critical, but stable condition, the fight to choose his successor began in earnest.
Kadima officials floated the idea of giving the comatose Sharon the top slot on the party's election list, while keeping acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert as its candidate for premier. The proposal _ unlikely as it was to survive _ was strongly debated by Israeli politicians Wednesday in a sign that the country's vibrant political debate had returned after grinding to a halt since Sharon's stroke.
Sharon's doctors said Wednesday that his condition had improved slightly and they were trying to wean him off the sedatives that kept him in an induced coma, though he remained on a low dose of sedatives Wednesday afternoon. Sharon, 77, has been unconscious for a week, since he suffered the massive stroke late Jan. 4.
Dr. Yoram Weiss, one of Sharon's doctors, told Israel's Channel 2 TV that Sharon might remain sedated Wednesday, and that after the sedatives are stopped, it would take several days to determine the extent of his brain damage.
"We're talking about a long, slow and drawn-out process and we hope that it will always develop positively. It's very hard to say what the pace will be," he said, reports AP.
O.Ch.
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