Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Ariel Sharon’s Condition Worsens — in ‘Final Days’

Ariel Sharon’s medical condition further deteriorated following a blood infection and multiple organ failure.

Prof. Ze’ev Rotstein, the director of Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer, said at a press conference Friday morning that over the past 24 hours, doctors have observed a slow deterioration in the functioning of the former Israeli prime minister’s vital organs.

“He is receiving medication to stabilize the heart system and the blood vessels and antibiotics to treat the infection, as we have indication of a blood infection,” Rotstein said, according to Army Radio.

Asked by a reporter if Sharon, 85, was in his final days, Rotshein responded saying, “I personally feel so”.

Rotstein described Sharon’s decline as steady.

“He is comfortable at this time. To the best of our understanding he is not suffering, such that we do not have to take any action to prevent him suffering,” Rotstein said.

On Thursday, a prominent Israeli rabbi said praying for Sharon’s survival was pointless because his brain is inactive.

“We always need to pray for any Jew to wake up but if he regains consciousness, he is in a state of severe brain damage,” Rabbi Shlomo Aviner from Jerusalem told the religious Israeli news site Srugim.co.il. “So what good will waking up do him? No good.”

Sharon’s condition was listed as critical on Thursday following renal failure. Rotstein said the hospital did not plan to perform dialysis treatment.

Sharon has been comatose for almost eight years following a stroke.

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.

In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.

At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.

Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.

Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly. 

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.