Tel-Chai Nation

A day before he was said to be going to the hospital for a special operation regarding his health situation, Ariel Sharon fell ill with a severe stroke, and it appears that he's no longer able to function as a political leader. (H/T: IRIS Blog).

To say the least, his political career is over because of this crisis. But what's really disturbing is that, for someone as old as Sharon is, he may have overworked himself. IRIS provides some details and analyses into what led to Sharon's ailing health situation. From the AP Wire:

The prime minister had been taking blood thinners since the first stroke to prevent another clot, but such drugs also raise the risk of cerebral hemorrhages, which account for only about 10 percent of strokes. Other possible causes of cerebral hemorrhages are ruptured blood vessels, an aneurysm, or bulge in a vessel wall that bursts, or even chronic high blood pressure.

Blood thinners may not have caused the latest stroke but could have made the bleeding worse and may account for its severity, Steig said.

As IRIS notes, some news reports said that there was confusion about which hospital to take him to. There was also a lack of preparations for if something like this should happen, and, as noted, "no aircraft was used to bring him from his ranch in the Negev to Jerusalem, because of the lack of preparedness." An article in Hebrew published in Maariv criticized the decision to take him such a long distance, rather than to one of the local hospitals in the Negev.

IRIS also makes a very astute observation on the medical team that was treating Sharon:

Clearly Sharon's team was much more focused on managing the political perceptions of his health than his actual medical condition. It is possible (but completely speculative), given what we discovered about the initial disinformation propagated by his doctors about of the seriousness of his medical condition, that his medical team may not have been chosen primarily for their technical skill.

It's interesting to note that the blogverse may have bettered the MSM considerably in covering the case, and IRIS, as explained here, was able to give the topic coverage in less than half the time it took for the MSM to do so. (See also this topic at Mediacrity.)

In the meantime, with Sharon unable to manage political duties any longer, Ehud Olmert has taken up the reins as acting prime minister.

Labels: Israel