Former Israeli premier returns home five years after stroke

Tel Aviv, Nov 12 (DPA) Former Israeli premier Ariel Sharon was Friday transferred to his home, Israel radio reported, nearly five years after he suffered a massive stroke and went into a coma in the midst of a re-election campaign.

The 82-year-old, who is in a vegetative state, would spend the weekend at his Sycamore Ranch in the southern Negev desert, as a trial to see if the caring for him outside hospital is possible.

Sharon’s family agreed to take him home, after insisting for two years that he be cared for in hospital, a spokeswoman from the Sheba hospital east of Tel Aviv said.

According to the hospital, previous attempts to bring Sharon to his home had not borne fruit ‘because of the family’s refusal’.

Hospital spokeswoman Michal Shabtay said Sharon would first spend a number of temporary leaves from the hospital at the ranch, which if successful, would pave the way for his full return home.

She added the trial process would be supervised by the hospital staff.

The announcement of his planned transfer home came after the Finance Committee of the Knesset, or parliament heard earlier this week that Sharon’s medical treatment at Sheba cost 1.6 million Israeli shekels ($440,000) a year.

A local social pressure group had complained about the expensive treatment Sharon was receiving. Sheba confirmed that the ex-premier’s care was beyond that given to any ordinary citizen.

Sharon suffered a massive brain haemorrhage Jan 4, 2006, three months before elections and with polls predicting him as the clear favourite.

He was admitted to the Sheba’s respiratory rehabilitation unit in May 2006, following initial treatment at Jerusalem’s Hadassash hospital.

According to the Haaretz daily, he has a two-person room to himself at the 10-room unit with some 18 patients.

Bodyguards are on duty around the clock and surveillance cameras have been installed, while a nurse tends to him during each day’s three shifts.

Sharon, who was married and widowed twice, has two sons, Omri and Gilad.

Sharon was one of Israel’s most controversial premiers.

As the then defence minister, an Israeli commission declared him indirectly responsible for the 1982 Sabra and Shatila massacre, in which Lebanese Christian militias who were Israel’s allies slaughtered hundreds of Palestinian refugees on the outskirts of Beirut.

But he is also known as the Israeli premier who unilaterally pulled Israel’s army and settlers out of the Gaza Strip in 2005.