Israeli doctors are preparing long-term care plans for comatose Prime Minister Ariel Sharon as his stand-in Ehud Olmert prepares to begin talks on forming a new government in his own right. A spokesman for Jerusalem's Hadassah hospital where Mr Sharon has been cared for since suffering a massive brain haemorrhage in January told AFP no final decision had been taken. But he said discussions were continuing while the 78-year-old premier's condition remained "serious but stable".
The top-selling Yediot Aharonot daily said it had been decided that Mr Sharon would be moved to the Tel Hashomer hospital in the commercial capital of Tel Aviv in the next two weeks to be cared for in the longer term. But the English-language Jerusalem Post said no decision had yet been taken by doctors and Sharon's sons Omri and Gilad on when and where he would be moved. Both papers said the premier was likely to undergo fresh surgery to reset a section of his skull that had been removed in January. The Post said that the bone tissue - amounting to a quarter of his skull - was being put back for "aesthetic purposes". |