Wednesday, January 04, 2006

Instaprognosis: Sharon Out.

Damn, this isnt good.

Earlier he'd had a minor stroke, probably the embolic type judging from reference to a heart defect and by the fact that he had been placed on blood thinners. Now he's had a hemorrhagic stroke, and probably the blood thinners exacerbated the condition. Facts such as "massive hemorrhage," morbid obesity, and being in respiratory failure, if true, do not portend well for saving his life, let alone his administration.

UPDATE: Yes, with FBRU you can get near-realtime interpretations and speculation regarding the announcements of Sharon's medical team and various experts. Now they have him in a likely "barb coma". Barbiturates are frequently given after brain surgery to prevent seizures, which are bad in this context, and poorly controllable.

To recap (and please note that none of these words are pejorative; I am a long-time admirer of Sharon. There is a tendency for medical people to sound a little bit, er, clinical): A morbidly obese septuagenarian is in respiratory failure and in a barb coma because of "massive brain damage" (per his M.D.'s). Obesity will probably hurt him by 1.)aggravating his respiratory failure, since his chest expansion will be restrained by the weight, leading to vulnerability to pneumonia, and 2.)by making stasis ulcers ("bed sores") very difficult to prevent. Either pneumonia or bed sores can get out of control and lead to systemic sepsis ("blood poisoning"). Toxins circulating in his blood can lead to more of his systems failing (liver, kidneys, GI tract, etc.) It is likely that Ari Sharon will not survive this. I would love for him to make a liar out of me.

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