Yasser Arafat's personal doctor will come Monday to the West Bank city of Ramallah to examine the Palestinian leader, who has been complaining in the last few days of tiredness and exhaustion, according to Al Quds newspaper.
In its Monday edition, the East Jerusalem-based newspaper said that Arafat's mild ailment may likely be the result of tremendous efforts the Palestinian leader has been putting into meetings with delegations arriving in Ramallah to express their support in him, as well as meetings concerning the formation of Aba Ala's government.
In recent weeks, many delegations have visited Arafat, 74, to show their support for the Palestinian leader, following the Israeli government's decision to "remove" him.
Dr. Ashraf al Kurdi, Arafat’s doctor has declined from commenting on the seriousness of the PA leader’s condition.
“I have not yet seen the Palestinian president…and so I do not know anything about what has happened to him. I shall talk to the media in details after returning from Ramallah,” Kurdi told Al Bawaba.
Last year, Kurdi – a renowned neurologist and former Jordanian health minister who has been overseeing Arafat’s health since the eighties - said that the 74-year-old Palestinian leader is not suffering from Parkinson’s disease, but rather has a form of the ‘shakes’ due to nervous tension. In June 1992, Arafat underwent a surgical operation to remove a blood clot from his brain that only appeared after his plane crashed in the Libyan desert.
Meanwhile, according to Arafat's top aide, Nabil Abu Rudenieh, the Palestinian leader has been ill for three days and has been unable to keep down his food.
A few years ago, Arafat developed noticeable tremors in his lower lip. Doctors ascribed these tremors to a nervous tic, but press reports speculated that the Palestinian leader was suffering from a degenerative neurological illness.
It should be noted, however, that in the past, newspapers had widely reported on various ailments Arafat had allegedly been suffering from, but as it turned out, those reports were apparently part of an ongoing internal struggle to succeed the Palestinian leader. (Albawaba.com)
© 2003 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
