Sharon's Health: An Assessment

Unfortunately, since Ariel Sharon's first stroke in December, there has been almost no source other than IRIS to turn to for an accurate overall assessment of his medical condition. While the media is now focused on the very slight developments in his climb from near-death, I have been documenting some of the extraordinary misimpressions that have been given. Essentially, there has been little substantive change in his overall condition since I first reported 15 minutes into the story that his political career was finished and that there was some question over whether he could be kept alive in a severely debilitated state.

Here are the current details by my neurologist source:

Everything we've seen from the recovery and heard from the scans suggests major damage to the right hemisphere and less damage to the left hemisphere. At the minimum there will be some serious paralysis and sensory receptive problems affecting the left side of the body and probably some interference with reasoning ability. It is possible that speech production and reception may be relatively intact, and it is even possible that vision in the entire visual field may be okay.

On the poor side of expectations is the possibility that he might not survive the next few weeks because of complications related to impaired consciousness and paralysis.

Click here for complete IRIS Sharon coverage.