RIYADH: Yemen’s President Ali Abdullah Saleh is recovering satisfactorily from surgeries at Riyadh’s Armed Forces Hospital, a hospital source said Tuesday.“Saleh underwent a few other minimally invasive procedures and non-invasive treatment for his injuries during the last two days,” said the source.
| Define 'minimally'... |
The source also said the president was “out of danger and responding to medical treatment satisfactorily.”
YemenÂ’s acting leader, Vice President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, has said Saleh intends to return within days.
Reuters reported on Tuesday that President Saleh was more seriously injured in the rocket attack than thought. Saleh suffered 40 percent burns and has bleeding inside his skull, the news agency said, citing an unidentified Yemeni official.
Given the pain involved with burns and the process of healing, Saleh would probably require strong sedation and a few more days to heal, said the Riyadh hospital source.
There have also been reports that one of the wooden shards that sliced into his body punctured a lung, Abdul Rahman Al-Rashed, the head of the Arabiya television network, was quoted as saying in a report Tuesday.
| So the 'minimally invasive' surgery would have been a chest tube, at least. We generally don't leave wood shards in the lung. He may have required a thoracotomy -- that's more than 'minimally' invasive. |