Follow Up: Sharon, Tallmansville Miners

We want to bring you up-to-speed on two stories that Delta has been following this week for you. First, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon remains in serious but stable condition. Doctors say it is still too soon to determine how much damage the stroke did to Sharon. On Sunday, doctors will wean him off drugs that are keeping him in a medically induced coma, and will assess his state then. Meanwhile, key members in Sharon's new Kadima Party said that they would rally around acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. (source)

And over in Pittsburgh, the surviving Sago miner, Randal McCloy Jr., one of his doctors say that in the hour he was discovered, McCloy's lungs filled up with so much gas and dust that he lost the ability to cough, sneeze, or otherwise control his airwaves. The doctor says that rescuers got to him just in time. The dust and gases caused McCloy's inflammation in his left lung. He is still in critical condition, and in a medically induced coma. McCloy's heart is now functioning properly. Whenever doctors wean or reduce the medications, McCloy does move, either by biting down on his feeding tube, or by flickering his eyelids. A neurologist at the hospital believes that his movements are, at this point, reflexive. (source)