The Tel Hashomer Hospital provided on Tuesday evening an update on the condition of former president Shimon Peres, who was admitted to the hospital earlier after suffering a stroke . The hospital’s director, Professor Yitzhak Kreiss, said, “The ninth President of the State of Israel, Shimon Peres, suffered a major stroke today. He is being treated by the best doctors in the hospital from across the medical fields. He underwent a number of scans and is currently sedated and intubated. He is in intensive care and we are monitoring him constantly. In the coming hours we will conduct further examinations and will update regarding his condition.” Peres's son, Chemi Peres, told reporters, “Good evening, these are difficult hours for me and my family. I want to start by thanking the medical staff at Tel Hashomer who are assessing my father and consulting with the family. There will come a time when we will need to take some decisions. Everything is dependent on how things develop and we don’t know more than that at present." "The family are all gathering at the hospital and we will continue to update. We are receiving a huge number of messages from Israel and abroad from all our friends who are surrounding us with love and care. I want to tell them all that there was nothing more important to my father than Israel and its people. My father is one of a kind, I am praying for him and ask all those that pray to continue to pray with us. We thank everyone for your love and care.” Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu earlier on Tuesday wished Peres a speedy recovery from the stroke. "Shimon, we love you and all the people wish you a [speedy] recovery," Netanyahu wrote on Twitter. Peres, 93, had a pacemaker implanted last week. The former President's doctors had recommended the pacemaker to avoid episodes of heartbeat irregularities and thus optimize Peres' continued full functioning.
