The Sheba Medical Center recently tried to persuade Ariel Sharon’s family to have the former Prime Minister transferred to his ranch or to another location for treatment. The family refused, and insists that Sharon remain at Sheba. Sharon has been comatose and in hospital since suffering a serious stroke on January 4, 2006.
Three rooms in Sheba’s Respiratory Rehabilitation Ward are set aside for Sharon’s treatment: one for Sharon himself, another for his bodyguards and a third which serves his son Gilad, according to reports in News1. According to the report, a part of the ward has been sealed off for security purposes, thus reducing the number of beds available for other patients.
The Ometz anti-corruption organization sent a letter to Ministry of Health Director Prof. Avi Yisraeli in which it claimed that Gilad Sharon has turned a room at the hospital into a regular office from which he runs his private business matters and where he holds meetings.
Ometz claimed that while the Knesset’s Finance Committee has decided that the State will participate in Sharon’s hospitalization costs, that decision does not mean that a room at Sheba can be used as his son’s private office.
The annual amount paid by the State of Israel for Sharon’s bureau is estimated at NIS 1.5 to 2 million and includes the creation of an archive for his documents.
The hospital confirmed that Sharon receives care that is unlike what an ordinary citizen would receive but cites Sharon’s “stature and decades-long contribution to the State of Israel.” It said “a constant dialogue is being maintained with the family and the medical team treating him, in order to consider the option of continuing the medical and nursing treatment of Mr. Sharon in a non-hospital environment.”
News1 said, however, that Sharon’s family has rejected these suggestions and that wealthy donors who have contributed to the hospital “have been enlisted” in order to “gently” convince the people in charge that the hospital would do better to allow Sharon to stay. The report hints that the donors linked between their continued support of the hospital and a decision to allow Sharon to remain there.
Sharon’s sons reportedly place him in a couch occasionally while supporting his body, and play him classical music in the hope that he will awake from his comatose state.