Israel’s former President and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shimon Peres suffered a major stroke last night and was rushed to the Sheba Medical Center in critical condition. Director of the medical center, Professor Yitzhak Kreiss, told reports that the condition of the former President has stabilized overnight, and that a team of experts would evaluate his situation.
“Mr. Peres this morning is stable, in a critical condition but stable. We are moving him to the neurosurgical intensive care unit and we are going to keep on the multi-disciplinary evaluation by our expert teams,” Prof. Yitzhak Kreiss, Director of Sheba Medical Center. Peres’ son-in-law and personal physician, Professor Raphi Walden said “when the sedation was a little lessened, he was reactive. He responded to our appeal to him and we’ll keep very close to him during the day and hopefully next time when the sedation will be lessened we hope we are going to be able to get in touch with him. Anyway, he is listening and he is understanding what is happening when the sedation is released so we are hoping for the best, thank you.”
In a career spanning nearly seven decades, the 93 years-old Peres, served in a dozen Israeli cabinets and twice as Prime Minister, even though he never won a general election outright in five tries from 1977 to 1996. He later served as president, a largely ceremonial role in Israel, from 2007 to 2014, before leaving politics. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement “Shimon, we love you and the entire nation is wishing for your recovery.