 Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat is in "stable condition" but doctors have restricted visits to his bedside in a French military hospital, the French armed forces health department said Monday. Stable: Resistant to change of position or condition; not easily moved or disturbed, Not subject to sudden or extreme change or fluctuation, Maintaining equilibrium.
Rigor Mortis: Muscular stiffening following death. |
Arafat is still receiving treatment in an intensive care unit at the hospital in Clamart outside Paris and "his condition is stable", according to the chief surgeon of the military health department, Christain Estripeau. | "How stable? Well, he can't get any worse." |
"President Arafat's medical condition forces us to restrict visits to him," said Estripeau, who read a statement to reporters in front of the hospital, the first such statement since Friday. | "We can't pull off this charade in front of witnesses." |
"The present statement has been made with respect for the discretion demanded by Mrs Arafat, his wife," he said. | "She doesn't want anyone to know he's, er, stable." |
Four of Arafat's top lieutenants, prime minister Ahmed Qorei, acting Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) chief Mahmud Abbas, foreign minister Nabil Shaath, and parliament speaker Rawhi Fattuh were expected in Paris later Monday to visit the ailing Palestinian leader. They had earlier shelved the visit after Arafat's wife, Suha Arafat, accused them of trying to "bury him alive". | No worry of that, anymore. |
Arafat, 75, has been hospitalised near Paris since October 29. |