Doctors called as Peres experiences chest pains overnight

Physicians decide against hospitalizing 92-year-old former president after treating him successfully for irregular heartbeat

Former Israeli president Shimon Peres speaks with survivor Benny Davidson at an event marking 40 years since Operation Thunderbolt, the Israeli rescue of over 100 hostages from the Entebbe Airport in Uganda on July 4, 1976, which was held at the Peres Center for Peace in Jaffa on June 27, 2016. (Judah Ari Gross/Times of Israel)
Former Israeli president Shimon Peres speaks with survivor Benny Davidson at an event marking 40 years since Operation Thunderbolt, the Israeli rescue of over 100 hostages from the Entebbe Airport in Uganda on July 4, 1976, which was held at the Peres Center for Peace in Jaffa on June 27, 2016. (Judah Ari Gross/Times of Israel)

Doctors were summoned to the home of Shimon Peres overnight Thursday-Friday, after the 92-year-old former president said he was experiencing chest pains.

Among those in attendance was Peres’s personal physician, Dr. Raphi Walden. The doctor is married to the former president’s daughter, Tsvia, and is deputy director at Sheba Medical Center near Tel Aviv.

An examination of Peres revealed that he was suffering from atrial fibrillation (abnormal heart rhythm). A senior cardiologist from Sheba was also called to provide treatment, Channel 10 reported. Once Peres’s heartbeat returned to normal, his doctors decided against hospitalizing him.

This is not the first time that Peres has complained of an irregular heartbeat. In January, he was hospitalized at Sheba for two nights of observation after complaining of chest pains. That incident came just over a week after he suffered a mild heart attack, and he remained in the hospital an extra day for observation at the request of the medical team.

Former president Shimon Peres speaks to the media upon his release from Sheba Medical Center in Ramat Gan on January 19, 2016. (Flash90)
Former president Shimon Peres speaks to the media upon his release from Sheba Medical Center in Ramat Gan on January 19, 2016. (Flash90)

Peres, now retired, enjoyed a 55-year political career culminating in a term as Israel’s president from 2007 to 2014. He remains active through his nongovernmental Peres Center for Peace, which promotes coexistence between Arabs and Jews.

Considered the last surviving member of Israel’s founding fathers, he served as prime minister twice — from 1984 to 1986 as part of a rotational government, and for a few months in 1995 and 1996 after the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin. He spent most of his career in the Labor Party.

Most Popular
read more: