Shaorma and Mozart to Save the PM

The team of doctors that takes care of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon applies unconventional methods in order to stimulate the patient’s senses. His reactions to stimuli were to be checked with shaorma and music by Mozart.

For now, the patient’s condition is appreciated as critical. Until now, the doctors concluded that Sharon was suffering from an undetected brain illness, which might have been aggravated by the preservatives he took lately. Sharon’ health can be speculated commercially as well.

Ariel Sharon suffered from a brain illness that wasn’t diagnosed in time. This illness might have been aggravated by the preservatives he had to take after the small brain damage he suffered on the 18th of December. This is the reason for the suppositions according to which the massive bleeding the Israeli Prime Minister suffered a week ago was caused by this treatment. Medical sources quoted by the Israeli press say that if the doctors had detected this illness, the PM wouldn’t have been prescribed such a treatment. However, the spokesperson of the Hadassah Ein Karem Hospital in Jerusalem, where the PM is treated, refused to comment this information. Unfortunately for everyone, this illness can be detected only after a brain bleeding, which is what happened in the case of Sharon.

IMPROVEMENT. Yesterday, the doctors continued the procedures for the gradual reducing of the sedatives that induced the coma to the Prime Minister in order to bring his brain to rest. They saw a small improvement in the patient’s condition. He started to breathe independently and he showed signs of movement on the left side. The doctors’ opinion is that the part of the brain that controls the left side of the body is the most affected one. The movements on the right side of the body have been more intense yesterday, according to medical sources quoted by the Israeli press. Nevertheless, the doctors said that it would probably take days before they will be able to give a complete diagnose regarding the PM’s health condition.

MUSIC AND FLAVORS. One of the steps of the evaluation includes less conventional methods to test the response to stimuli of the patient. According to the radio station of the Israeli Army, Galei Tzahal, the doctors have decided to place a plate with shaorma at the end of the bed in which the patient is seated with the purpose of testing his olfactory sense, since Sharon is a great fan of shaorma. Moreover, the two sons of the Prime Minister, Gilad and Omri, have decided to bring to the hospital CDs with music by Mozart, their father’s favorite composer, which might have an important role in the healing process according to the doctors. The doctors came up with this idea after they read in the press that Sharon was a keen admirer of classical music. Therefore, Sharon has music non-stop, even though the doctors don’t know if he hears anything. In the same time, the PM’s sons, as well as the other relatives that go on pilgrimage to the hospital these days have been advised to talk to Sharon for hours and to show their love and affection for him, and to repeat his name very often.

EFFECTS. The Israeli press emphasizes that, in time, it has been observed that Mozart’s music has a benefic effect on the brain and that at the beginning of the 90s, when the first similar research was published, all the music of Mozart in Los Angeles was sold out. It is still too early to speak of such an effect in the case of the Israeli Prime Minister.

PRUDENCE. The fact that both the left members of Ariel Sharon respond to stimuli is good news especially because the doctors feared that he might be paralyzed on the left side. Of course, the tests performed by now cannot remove these suspicions. It will take a few days until Sharon’s condition will be evaluated more precisely and it will be known if the brain damage on last Wednesday affected him. The Israeli specialists are struggling not to let the information they make public become a source of optimism, which would make the people believe Sharon is in a much better condition than in reality.

Besides any speculations, it is very clear that the movements on the left side are a premiere in the evolution of the Prime Minister. Initially the doctors believed that the brain bleeding affected his right hemisphere, which controls the left side of the body. These encouraging signs add to the more and more firm movements the doctors record on the right side of Sharon’s body. "These movements added to the slight increase in the blood pressure as a reaction to pain are signs of a certain degree of brain activity", the source in the Hadassah Hospital stated. The specialist insisted, like all the other that gave statements to the press in the last days, that it will take a few more days until they will be able to say the real causes of Sharon’s brain commotion. Professor Martin Rabbai, the chief of the neurosurgery department of the Assaf Harofeh Hospital, said in his turn that the response to pain stimuli of the patient is a primitive one, which doesn’t mean anything for the evaluation of the cognitive functions. "Sharon is yet to respond to cognitive stimuli, like his name", Rabbai said.

In the next days, the doctors will continue reducing the quantity of sedatives dosed to the PM and will monitor the effects of this delicate procedure. This process will also take a few days, as the spokesperson of the Hadassah Hospital, Ron Krumer, emphasized.

MEASURES. In the meantime, due to the precarious state of the political situation, the authorities decided that, after the medicine specialists that examine Sharon would draw a conclusion, they should present it to the General Prosecutor. He would be the one to decide whether the PM is incapable of leading for a certain period or definitely. Is Sharon a legend already? We are yet to find out. It is certain that Ariel Sharon’s struggle between life and death happen in an atmosphere somewhat similar to the one at the death of former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin: a feeling that a chapter is ending with a lot of uncertainties regarding the future of the country and the peace.

THE ALLIES IN AMERICA. The health problems of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, as well as his possible incapacity of going back to being PM generates great problems to the policy of the Bush administration in the region. "All the ones believing that Sharon had a policy going in the good direction, the regional leaders, the Bush Administration, are in front of a void", Rachel Bronson, expert at the Council on Foreign Relations, says. The specialist says that Ariel Sharon dictated the policy of the American President in the Middle East, because the American President was convinced after the events on September 11 that the war against terrorism must start in this region. There are experts that do not agree with this, but, like Robert Statloff, executive director at the Washington Institute for the Near East Politics, they believe "Sharon’s vision was to figure out that the traditional bilateral diplomacy with the Palestinians is no more current; this is the reason for which he adopted an unilateral approach", and he even forced Bush. Anyway, whoever will come to take his place, even if they would not have "Sharon’s force and popularity", will have to work with the United States.