Sharon undergoes emergency surgery

JERUSALEM – Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on Saturday survived his latest medical crisis – one that has served, somewhat poignantly, to underscore the degree to which the Israeli political torch has passed to his successor, Ehud Olmert.

The 77-year-old leader, who has been comatose since suffering a massive stroke more than five weeks ago, was said by doctors to be out of immediate danger after emergency surgery Saturday in which about 11/2 feet of his large intestine was removed.

Shlomo Mor-Yosef, director of Hadassah University Medical Center at Ein Kerem, told reporters at the hospital that Sharon, who has been unconscious since a catastrophic cerebral hemorrhage on Jan. 4, had come through four hours of surgery safely.

“Initially, it seemed his life was threatened,” said Mor-Yosef, addressing reporters as he stood in front of the blue-and-white logo of Hadassah University Medical Center, Israel’s premier hospital, where Sharon has been under treatment since the immediate aftermath of his stroke.

Sharon has shown few or no signs he would emerge from his coma, other than moving his limbs in response to pain stimulus.

Doctors last month performed a tracheotomy to help him breathe with the aid of a respirator, and on Feb. 1 they inserted a feeding tube – another sign that his condition was considered one of long-term incapacitation.