Posted on 11/05/2004 1:32:01 AM PST by konaice
CLAMART, France (AP) - Doctors fought to keep Yasser Arafat alive as anxious Palestinian officials looked for ways to prevent unrest if their 75-year-old leader, said to be in a coma Friday, dies.
A swirl of reports saying Arafat had died Thursday were quashed by doctors at the French military hospital where he has been treated since being airlifted to France last week. Arafat's aides, however, acknowledged his condition was very serious. On Friday, Israeli Justice Minister Yosef Lapid told Israel TV's Channel Two that Arafat was brain dead and on life support. But a Palestinian spokeswoman denied Lapid's assertion.
"He is in a coma. We don't know the type but it's a reversible coma," Leila Shahid, the Palestinian envoy to France, told French RTL radio.
Shahid said Arafat was put under anesthesia to have medical tests, including an endoscopy and a biopsy of the spinal cord.
"The doctors don't have a diagnosis," she said. "All vital organs are functioning. This is why all the doctors say that he could or could not wake up."
(Excerpt) Read more at canada.com ...
actually, he had several
he called them bodygards
The doctors in France seem to be the kind that John Edwards dreams about!
"He's dead, he's not dead. He's in a coma, but we can reverse it. He's lost conciousness, no wait, he's conscious."
Wonder if the French have laws for malpractice, LOL!
Spinal biopsy? Spinal tap maybe? Always risks involved with any invasive procedure. Whoa unto the poor sap who preformed those procedures if something went wrong as a result of them.
Shades of Rathergate. Is there a Kinko's in Paris?
If the cause is treated, of course it's reversible.
Socialized medicine finally serves a useful purpose
Maybe they'll be a Paris power outage, oh, hospitals have back up gnerators. maybe someone could "accidently" trip on the electrical chord.
Satan must be calling him home. :)
I have been wondering if he is dead and the French are attempting to aid the Palestinians by sneaking the body back into Israel for a secret burial in Jerusalem.
Hey this thread needs a "Weekend at Yasser's" picture!
"Sometimes patients are put into a drug induced coma while they heal"
Right... And I have a bridge in Brooklyn I'd like to sell.
If that was the case it would be a KNOWN type of coma now wouldn't it....
Death is too nuanced for us simpletons to fully comprehend. Perhaps former-presidential-candidate Kerry could help us understand it.
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