Timeline of Sharon's health crisis
Sharon's life is in danger, hospital officials said on Saturday, more than five weeks after he suffered a massive brain haemorrhage.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's life is in danger, hospital officials said on Saturday, more than five weeks after he suffered a massive brain haemorrhage.
Following is the chain of events:
December 18, 2005: Sharon admitted to Jerusalem's Hadassah hospital with mild stroke. Discharged two days later.
December 26: Doctor says the 77-year-old must return to hospital to repair a small hole in his heart and prevent a repetition of his stroke.
His medical records are published, showing him to be healthy but overweight.
January 4, 2006: Sharon rushed back to hospital suffering a brain haemorrhage that caused "extensive damage."
Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert appointed acting prime minister.
January 5: Sharon undergoes two operations to drain blood from his brain. Doctors say his condition is life-threatening and even if he survives, he will be incapacitated for some time.
The government says the March 28 election will go ahead.
January 6: Doctors detect further cranial bleeding and Sharon, now in a medically induced coma, undergoes third operation.
January 8: After a brain scan, doctors rule out Sharon's chances of returning as prime minister.
Olmert chairs the first regular cabinet meeting without Sharon and insists the government is functioning.
January 9: Sharon breathes unaided shortly after doctors begin gradually waking him from the coma, and he manages to raise his right arm.
January 10: Doctors declare Sharon out of immediate danger.
Polls show a rise in popularity for Kadima, the centrist party he founded after quitting the right-wing Likud in November.
January 11: Chief surgeon says Sharon's progress has defied all expectations but stresses it could take months to assess the full extent of damage.
He was moving his four limbs and showing stronger responses to stimulation, as doctors eased drugs keeping him in an artificial coma.
January 12: Olmert, in his first telephone conversation with US President George W Bush since Sharon's collapse, says there can be no progress in the peace process if Hamas enters a Palestinian government.
Four members of Sharon's old right-wing Likud party, including Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom, resign from the ruling coalition.
January 13: Public radio says Sharon in a "very worrying, even frightening" condition.
January 14: Hospital spokesman Ron Krumer does not deny the report, but says Sharon's "vital signs" are normal and stable and that tests detected activity on both sides of his brain.
January 15: The cabinet makes its first significant decision without Sharon by allowing Arabs in east Jerusalem to vote in the Palestinian election.
Sharon undergoes a tracheotomy to help clean his lungs.
January 16: Sharon blinks his eyes in front of relatives but medics say it is too early to assess the significance.
Olmert is officially named interim chairman of Kadima.
January 18: Sharon's doctors replace a faulty breathing tube.
Olmert reshuffles and expands Israel's cabinet to add four Sharon allies.
January 19: Doctors report no change in Sharon's condition.
Nineteen people are wounded in Tel Aviv in the first suicide attack against Israel since the end of a Palestinian truce and Sharon's collapse.
January 24: Sharon's condition serious but stable on 20th day of coma Doctors concealed the gravity of his medical condition after he suffered his first stroke, Haaretz charges. The hospital refuses to comment.
January 25: Palestinian elections are held, with Hamas winning a landslide over the long-dominant Fatah movement
January 31: Sharon responds to commands by his doctors to move his eyes and one of his hands, Israeli television reports, although there is no confirmation from the hospital
January 1: Sharon undergoes an operation to insert a feeding tube into his stomach.
February 9: A CT scan shows no change in Sharon's condition.
February 11: A hospital spokesman says Sharon's life is in danger after doctors discovered a "serious deterioration" in his digestive tract
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