Egypt\'s Hosni Mubarak not in coma, may recover

Egypt\'s Mubarak transferred to hospital after stroke Egypt\'s jailed former president Hosni Mubarak is not in a deep coma, said Egypt\'s state-run Ahram Online(AO), quoting an official medical source. The next 72 hours will be critical but he could survive, said the source to AO. However, he may not regain all his intellectual and physical capacities and may have impaired concentration and vision due to a stroke.
A hospital source however told British daily The Times that Mubarak is \"concious and stable\" and not in a coma. The unnamed source said: \"I think this was just something to get him out of prison and into a better place. He\'s conscious and stable. He is not mechanically ventilated.\"
Mubarak\'s sons, Gamal and Alaa, who are currently in prison awaiting trail, have been issued a permit allowing them to visit their father at Maadi Hospital. However, the time spent processing the permit may mean they do not arrive at the hospital until 5 or 6pm Wednesday evening, added the source. 
Mubarak, who ruled Egypt for three decades until being overthrown last year, was on life support in hospital on Tuesday. Officials then denied to the Reuters news agency earlier reports he was clinically dead.
Earlier Egypt\'s state news agency MENA, amid high tension over the election of a new president, quoted medical sources as saying the former head of state, aged 84, was \"clinically dead\". That description was used also to Reuters by a hospital source.
Meanwhile, speaking to Ahram Online before midnight Tuesday, an informed source denied news circulating that suggested that Mubarak is already dead. He said that the ousted president is still technically alive.
He would not comment on whether or not Mubarak could survive the current health attack.
\"I am not that close to the direct medical circle; only a few people know the exact health condition of Mubarak at this particular moment,\" he said.
Three sources in the military and security services, which retain control following the revolt, confirmed to Reuters that Mubarak was being kept alive and said they would not use the expression \"clinically dead\" to describe his condition.
General Said Abbas, a member of the ruling military council, told Reuters, that Mubarak had suffered a stroke but added: \"Any talk of him being clinically dead is nonsense.\"
Another military source said: \"He is completely unconscious. He is using artificial respiration.\"
A security source also gave the same account and said: \"It is still early to say that he is clinically dead.\"
The plan to move Mubarak to the Maadi military hospital has been underway for a few days – effectively, since his arrival at Tora Prison Hospital on 2 June, after having been sentence to life imprisonment after being found guilty of participating in the crime of killing of protesters during last year\'s 18-day uprising.
During the best part of last year, Mubarak had been kept at the International Medical Centre, on the outskirts of Cairo, where his health further deteriorated – some related to old age and some to cancer.
Mubarak was inaugurated in October 1981 following the assassination of his predecessor Anwar El-Sadat, who was assassinated by militant Islamists during a parade to commemorate the October War. Sadat was rushed to the same Maadi hospital, where he died later that day.
The confusion over Mubarak\'s health comes as his long-time opponents in the Muslim Brotherhood, represented by candidate Mohamed Mursi, claim victory over the imprisoned president\'s last premier and fellow military man, Ahmed Shafiq, in a presidential election runoffs held at the weekend.
Results have not been published, and supporters of Shafiq said it was he who had won, while Mursi\'s campaign has maintained their man\'s victory, publishing a compendium of the results to verify their count.
State news agency MENA had earlier cited medical sources to say that Mubarak was clinically dead. His heart had stopped beating and could not be revived.
Later, however, the agency, citing medical sources, said a medical team was still trying treat a blood clot on the brain, adding that he had not left the intensive care unit at Tora prison, where he had been held since being sentenced to life imprisonment on June 2 for his role in the deaths of protesters.