Former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who suffered a massive stroke six years ago and is in a coma, responds to some requests and has but on some weight, despite being fed intravenously, his son, Gilad Sharon, told the New York Times.

“When he is awake, he looks at me and moves fingers when I ask him to, I am sure he hears me,” the younger Sharon said in a telephone interview with the Times.

Gilad Sharon is publishing a biography of his father’s life titled “Sharon: The Life of a Leader”, to be released on Tuesday in Hebrew and English, which he has been working on for the past four-and-a-half years.

The former prime minister is currently at Sheba Hospital, but his family hopes he can be returned home.

“The problem is Israeli bureaucracy. I think it would be better for him to be at home,” Gilad Sharon told the Times. He continued, saying that either he, his wife, Inbal or his brother Omri had visited his father every day since his stroke six years ago. “We haven’t missed a single day,” he told the Times.

Sharon was taken back to his home on the Sycamore Farm in the Negev in 2010, however, he was returned to the hospital shortly thereafter, where he has remained.

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