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http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,2763,1344520,00.html
11.15am
Arafat 'between life and death'
Associated Press Friday November 5, 2004
The Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat, is in a "reversible coma" but is not brain dead, his spokeswoman said today. The statement came amid conflicting reports about the 75-year-old's condition.
"I can assure you that there is no brain death," Leila Shahid, the Palestinian envoy to France, told the French RTL radio station. "He is in a coma. We don't know the type, but it's a reversible coma. Today we can say that, given his condition and age, he is at a critical point between life and death."
She categorically denied persistent reports in the French and Israeli media that Mr Arafat was brain dead and was being kept alive on life support. "He could or could not wake up ... all vital organs are functioning," she said.
A series of reports yesterday, saying that Mr Arafat had died, were denied by a spokesman for the Paris hospital at which the Palestinian leader is being treated.
Since Mr Arafat was airlifted to the French military hospital from the West Bank last Friday, his exact condition has largely remained a mystery. French physicians have yet to announce a diagnosis, but yesterday confirmed he had been rushed to intensive care after his condition became "more complex".
Ms Shahid suggested that the coma had occurred after Mr Arafat was put under anaesthetic to have additional medical tests, including an endoscopy, colonoscopy and biopsy of the spinal cord. Doctors had determined that he was not suffering from stomach cancer, Ms Shahid said. Earlier this week, a medical statement drafted by the hospital said initial tests had also ruled out leukaemia. A clear diagnosis has never been issued.
Israel's justice minister, Yosef Lapid, said Mr Arafat was being kept alive artificially, but the source of that information was not clear. "We all know that clinically he's dead, but we won't interfere with internal Palestinian affairs - they'll announce his death when they find it proper," he told Associated Press Television News.
Yesterday, however, Mr Arafat's personal physician, Dr Ashraf Kurdi, insisted that a brain scan showed that the Palestinian leader "has no type of brain death".
Outside the hospital, around 50 well-wishers held a vigil until the early hours of this morning. Some held candles, others portraits of Mr Arafat. "It tears your heart up," Mahmod Nimr, a 36-year-old Palestinian, said outside the hospital. "I can't see someone taking his place."
Brain death occurs when the brain stops working, making it impossible for the body to maintain its own vital functions, such as breathing. It is irreversible. Patients can be kept alive by a machine as long as the heart is still beating and nothing is seriously wrong with the rest of the body.
The French television station LCI quoted an anonymous French medical official as saying Mr Arafat was in an "irreversible coma" and "intubated" - a process that involves threading a tube down the windpipe to the lungs to connect it to a respirator to help the patient breathe.
To be on a respirator, a patient must be unconscious, but not necessarily brain dead or even in a coma.
Palestinian leaders yesterday held an emergency meeting in the West Bank about how to prevent unrest if Mr Arafat dies.
The Palestinian prime minister, Ahmed Qureia, assumed some of the leader's financial powers, and was to travel to the Gaza Strip today to order security chiefs to show solidarity and not fight, a Palestinian official said.
The Israeli army, which is on high alert, has a contingency plan to deal with the fallout from Mr Arafat's death, including possible Palestinian riots.
An Israeli cabinet official said today that Israel would allow Mr Arafat to be buried in the Gaza Strip. The Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, has said he would not permit Mr Arafat to be buried in Jerusalem, which is claimed by both Israel and the Palestinians as their capital.
Meanwhile, the 25 EU leaders today expressed solidarity with the Palestinians and pledged to help relaunch Middle East peace efforts.
