Former Israeli President Shimon Peres suffered a stroke on Tuesday this week, and remains in serious condition but is showing “real improvement” according to relatives.
Peres’s personal physician and son-in-law Rafi Walden described his condition as serious but stable. He said it was likely his condition would remain that way for the coming days.
Peres, aged 93, remains in intensive care and is breathing with the help of a respirator, but is still able to respond to prompts.
Doctors and family members of the former President will make a decision as early as this weekend about when to completely halt his medically induced coma.
After feeling unwell during lunch on Tuesday, Peres was rushed to the hospital in the Tel Aviv suburb of Ramat Gan for medical tests. Initial blood tests revealed a chemical imbalance. After further tests, at around 7pm aides and a nurse attending to him noticed a deterioration in his interaction with those around him.
He said his head hurt, causing the medical team to suspect a stroke. He was given a CT scan at 8 pm that confirmed internal bleeding in the brain.
The “massive intracranial hemorrhage” occurred in the middle of a typically busy day for the former President who has remained active in public life after a seven-decade career as a politician.
Peres is a much loved figure in Israel, considered as a national treasure and the last surviving link to the country’s founding fathers.
Over a seven-decade career, he has held almost every senior political office, including two stints as Prime Minister and extended terms as Foreign, Defence and Finance minister. He won the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize for his work in reaching an interim peace agreement with the Palestinians.
In 1996, he founded the Peres Center for Peace, which is now Israel’s leading organisation promoting peacebuilding between Israel and its neighbours.
