TEL AVIV, Feb 11: Israel’s coma-stricken Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was declared out of immediate danger after emergency surgery on Saturday to remove part of his intestines, but doctors warned his chances of survival are receding by the day.

More than five weeks after suffering a massive stroke, Mr Sharon underwent a four-hour operation to remove around a third of his largest intestine after doctors had detected significant swelling to his abdomen overnight.

“There were no complications at all,” Shlomo Mor Yosef, director of Jerusalem’s Hadassah hospital told reporters.

“His condition is serious, stable. There is no immediate danger” to his life, he added.

Mor Yosef however emphasised that the abdominal problems were merely a further complication to a patient who has still to emerge from the coma that was medically induced after he suffered a brain haemorrhage on January 4.

“It is important to re-emphasise that the general problem is his coma. It is not his abdominal pain.

“Every day that passes, his chances of recovering are reduced... No doubt the operation he underwent today will not add to his health.”

A doctor at Hadassah, speaking on condition of anonymity before the stomach operation, said that the collapse of Sharon’s digestive system indicated a systemic breakdown.

“What this means for a person in the condition of Prime Minister Sharon is it is a sign that the internal systems of the body are collapsing,” the doctor said.

“The collapse of the digestive system means that the other parts are starting to collapse now... In those who have brain damage it usually means you can’t keep them alive for a long time.”

Doctors have been gradually trying to bring the 77-year-old Sharon out of the medically-induced coma, although there is widespread acceptance that he will never return to high office.

Although he initially moved his limbs in response to pain stimulus tests, there have been no reports of progress in the last few weeks.

As news of his worsening situation emerged, a media circus descended once more on the Hadassah, breaking the tranquility of the Jewish Sabbath which ended at sundown on Saturday.

Since Sharon’s initial collapse, Ehud Olmert has stepped in as acting prime minister and Israelis are growing accustomed to political life without their leader, focused more on the prospect of a Hamas-run government in the Palestinian territories and next month’s election in Israel.

When Sharon, one of the most popular prime ministers in Israel’s history despite a controversial military record, suffered his massive brain haemorrhage, the nation ground to a halt.—AFP