[Breaking news update, published at 9:59 a.m. ET]
Former Israeli President and Prime Minister Shimon Peres is in severe but stable condition, and he has improved in the 24 hours after his stroke, Dr. Yitzhak Kreiss, head of the Sheba Medical Center in Ramat Gan, said in a news conference Wednesday.
Kreiss said Peres responds when medical personnel wake him up, and Kreiss has the impression that Peres’ neurological condition is a little better. Peres still is intubated and sedated, Kreiss added.
The dosage of Peres’ sedation has been reduced, and he has “responded very well,” Dr. Rafi Valden, Peres’ son-in-law and personal physician, told reporters at the same news conference.
“He understood what he was told. He shook my hand energetically. There has been a significant improvement in his consciousness,” Valden said. “We are going to keep him under sedation … to make things easier for him, to remove the strain, so he does not come into a condition of stress.”
It is a mild sedation that allows him to rest and gives him optimal chances for recovery, Valden said.
[Original story, published at 9:27 a.m. ET]
Former Israeli President and Prime Minister Shimon Peres was in “critical but stable” condition Wednesday morning, a day after suffering a stroke, a hospital official said, but the nation’s health minister said he was becoming more optimistic about Peres’ condition.
Peres, 93, suffered a stroke Tuesday with “a component of bleeding,” said Dr. Yitzhak Kreiss, manager of Sheba Medical Center in Ramat Gan, where Peres is being treated.
Kreiss said Wednesday morning that doctors decided there was nothing to justify surgery for now, and that Peres was sedated and intubated in an intensive care unit.
On Wednesday afternoon, Israeli Health Minister Yaakov Litzman told reporters that he was “a bit more optimistic than I would have been last night” about Peres’ condition.
Peres’ relatives also indicated that they were hopeful. Peres was reacting to family members as sedation was wearing off, said Rafi Valden, Peres’ son-in-law and personal doctor.
“He squeezed our hand and gave indication he is listening to us,” Valden said Wednesday morning.
Doctors were discussing Wednesday afternoon whether to bring Peres further out of sedation, his spokeswoman Ayelet Frish said.
In Israeli politics for more than half a century
Peres retired from public office in 2014 after his seven-year term as president ended. By then, he had been in Israeli politics for more than half a century, holding virtually every position in Israel’s Cabinet, from minister of defense to prime minister, a position he held twice.
He battled Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin for Labor Party leadership in the 1980s and 1990s, eventually becoming Rabin’s foreign minister in 1992. In that role, Peres concluded the Oslo Peace Accords, for which he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994 with Rabin and Yasser Arafat.
After Rabin was assassinated in 1995, Peres became prime minister, calling early elections so the government would have a mandate to pursue a two-state solution. But a wave of Palestinian suicide attacks left Peres struggling to defend the peace process, ultimately costing him the next election.
As Israel’s ninth president, he addressed the Turkish parliament in 2007, becoming the first Israeli president to speak to a Muslim country’s legislature. He called for peace talks in 2011 with the Palestinians and warned the United Nations against recognizing Palestine as an independent state outside a peace plan.
He received the US Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012 from President Barack Obama.
Continued work for peace in Middle East
He has remained in the public eye since leaving office, continuing his work for peace in the Middle East.
In a 2015 interview with CNN, Peres expressed support for a nuclear deal with Iran and said it would be feasible for inspectors to enforce the terms of the agreement.
In July he laid the cornerstone for the Israeli Innovation Center at the Peres Peace House in Tel Aviv with President Reuven Rivlin and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The center aims to showcase Israel’s technology achievements and encourage entrepreneurs and start-ups.
Tuesday’s news is the latest health scare for the elder statesman.
Peres was rushed to the hospital in mid-January after suffering a minor heart attack. He underwent emergency surgery and got a stent, but would not be slowed down, asking the doctor how soon before he would be up and running again. He returned to the hospital 10 days later after suffering from an irregular heartbeat.