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Sharon speaks to reporters before leaving
the hospital after his first stroke.
Photo: Ariel Jerozolimski [file]

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Escorted by police, an ambulance carrying ailing
former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon leaves
Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem, Sunday.
Photo: AP


Former prime minister Ariel Sharon was moved from Hadassah-University Hospital to Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer Hospital on Sunday.

Sharon has been hospitalized at Hadassah since suffering a massive stroke on January 4, and from now will receive care in Sheba's department for respiratory care and rehabilitation.

Authorities chose not to move Sharon, who is still connected to a respirator, by helicopter, although both facilities have helipads.

A press conference is due to be held after Sharon arrives at Sheba, whose director-general Ze'ev Rothstein will speak to reporters about Sharon's treatment. The main aim of the 18-bed department, headed by Dr. Arie Wollner, is to wean the comatose Sharon off his respirator.

Sharon is given virtually no chance of regaining consciousness. His sons Gilad, who spends 12 hours a day with him, and Omri will not be present at the press conference.

Before the rumors of the transfer were confirmed, Wollner was permitted to describe the "unique facilities" that it offers. "We are a national center, and we are always full," he said. "It is a hospital within a hospital, with interdisciplinary care by specialists in intensive care, internal medicine, lung disease and other fields, plus physiotherapists and other professionals. Our patients are stable and no longer under the imminent threat of death, but they still need life support measures, including weaning from ventilation."

BY JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICH