Sharon’s Doctors Warn of a Wait

Doctors said Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon showed more signs of improvement Tuesday, moving both hands and continuing to breathe on his own as he was gradually being awakened from a medically induced coma following a massive stroke six days earlier.

Dr. Yoram Weiss, an anesthesiologist at Hadassah University Medical Center who is part of the team treating Sharon, said the prime minister’s condition was stable and his life was in “no immediate danger.”

Sharon, 77, remained unconscious, and doctors cautioned that it might take days before they can determine how severely his cognitive abilities have been damaged by the hemorrhagic stroke, which occurred Jan. 4.

Although Sharon remained hooked to a respirator, physicians said he was continuing to breathe independently and moved his left hand for the first time since the stroke, said Dr. Shlomo Mor-Yosef, the hospital director.

He said Sharon showed more pronounced movements of his right hand and leg than on Monday, when he first moved them in reaction to pain stimuli as doctors began reducing the sedatives that have been used to keep him in a coma.

“Those are the neurological changes which point to slight progress in the brain function of the prime minister,” Mor-Yosef said during an afternoon briefing, the first in nearly 24 hours. He said that during the next day doctors would continue to reduce the sedatives and conduct further tests of Sharon’s brain function.

Movement in the prime minister’s left hand might indicate that the stroke caused less harm than feared because the worst damage was inflicted on the right half of the brain, which controls the left side of the body.

Sharon’s physicians said his vital signs -- blood pressure, pulse, intracranial pressure and temperature -- were within normal ranges. Weiss said the prime minister’s life was not at imminent risk.

“Metaphorically speaking, we were on the cliff, and now we’ve gotten five meters away,” Weiss said. He repeatedly urged patience, saying it would take time for the anesthetic drugs to leave the prime minister’s body and a full assessment of his abilities to be made. Hemorrhagic strokes often prove fatal even weeks after they occur.

U.S. surgeons cautioned that they didn’t have all of Sharon’s medical information but emphasized that the prognosis was still grim.

“At a minimum, he is going to have paralysis on one side of his body and a lot of cognitive problems,” said Dr. Keith Siller, medical director of the Comprehensive Stroke Care Center at New York University. “The only potential here that leaves room for optimism is that the nondominant side of the brain was involved” in the hemorrhage.

Dr. Richard L. Harvey, medical director of the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, said that recovery, if it occurred, would take place over a few weeks and be marked by spontaneous movements, perhaps a few words, and an opening of Sharon’s eyes.

“If he becomes conscious and can engage with people, that’s a good sign that he is a candidate for more intensive rehabilitation,” Harvey said.

In an effort to stoke Sharon’s senses, doctors placed a plate of shawarma, a meat dish that is said to be one of his favorites, near his bed, according to Israeli media.

His sons, Omri and Gilad, have reportedly been playing Mozart compositions to the prime minister through headphones and speaking to him.

Omri Sharon spoke to reporters outside the hospital Tuesday evening. “I came out here in the name of my family to thank the citizens of Israel, who since Wednesday have supported us with their concern, prayer, warmth and love for my father’s well-being,” he said.

Mor-Yosef denied as “incorrect” a report in the Haaretz newspaper Tuesday that Hadassah doctors did not previously detect a disorder that weakens blood vessels in the brain and could have increased Sharon’s risk of suffering a hemorrhagic stroke.

The newspaper, citing an unidentified source involved in treating the prime minister, said doctors might not have prescribed blood thinners if they had spotted the problem when Sharon was hospitalized last month after suffering a mild ischemic, or clot-based, stroke.

Doctors at Hadassah sent Sharon home two days after the Dec. 18 stroke, saying it had caused no apparent long-term damage. Afterward, Sharon had taken anticoagulants, making it more difficult for doctors to stop the bleeding after the more recent stroke.

Mor-Yosef stopped short of confirming that Sharon had the disorder, known as cerebral amyloid angiopathy, which doctors say is common among the elderly though difficult to detect. But Mor-Yosef said doctors “knew the cerebral diagnosis of the prime minister” after the first stroke and found no new problems this time.

The uncertainty about Sharon’s health has brought Israeli politics to a near-halt less than three months before national elections. Vice Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has temporarily taken over Sharon’s duties and is expected to assume leadership of the centrist Kadima movement founded by the prime minister and allies two months ago.

Kadima and the other major factions have largely put their campaign activities on hold as a result of his health crisis.

Times staff writer Thomas H. Maugh II in Los Angeles contributed to this report.