E-Paper
Sharon's real problem not revealed: Report
Doctors treating the Israeli PM concealed the gravity of his medical condition from the public after his December stroke.
Doctors treating Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon concealed the gravity of his medical condition from the public after he suffered a first stroke in December, a newspaper charged on Tuesday.
When Sharon was discharged from hospital after a minor stroke -- less than three weeks before he succumbed to a massive brain haemorrhage -- he had cardiac and cerebral diseases that were not revealed, the Haaretz said.
The 77-year-old leader, who has been replaced by Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert since his collapse on January 4, was lying in a coma for the 20th day Tuesday in Jerusalem's Hadassah hospital.
At the time of his first stroke, doctors said they had discovered Sharon had a small hole in the heart since birth. The defect was to have been repaired the day after he suffered his stroke.
But Haaretz said its own inquiries showed Sharon also suffered from more serious, life-threatening heart problems, including a large aneurysm in the septum.
Such a condition is a known source of cerebral blood embolisms, and indeed led to the blood clot that caused Sharon's first stroke, Haaretz reported senior doctors at the Hadassah as saying.
Sharon also suffered from other heart diseases and other conditions in the cardiac septum that created further risks of blood clots that could wing up in the brain, Haaretz reported.
