DHAKA: The condition of Israel’s former prime minister Ariel Sharon, who has been in a coma since 2006, has worsened and is now critical, ‘with some danger to life’, his doctors say.

Sharon, 85, is suffering from a malfunction of several organs including the kidneys, they said, reports the BBC.

He became prime minister in 2001 and suffered a mild stroke in 2005.

After a second, major stroke in 2006, he went into a coma and has been in a persistent vegetative state ever since.

Giving an update, professor Zeev Rotstein of Tel Hashomer hospital, said, ‘In the last few days, we have seen a gradual decline in the functioning of Ariel Sharon’s vital organs’, adding that the ex-PM’s life was ‘in danger’.

Sharon’s family is at his bedside.

One of his sons, Omri, told the Jerusalem Post, ‘We have hope, we always have hope’.

BDST: 1615 HRS, JAN 02, 2014
Edited by Robab Rosan, Current Affairs Editor