Deathwatch News: Israeli singer Ofra Haza in intensive care

["Deathwatch Central" <cdw@slick.org>]

http://www.cnn.com/2000/SHOWBIZ/Music/02/17/ofra.haza/

February 17, 2000
Web posted at: 12:24 p.m. EST (1724 GMT)

>From news and wire reports

TEL AVIV, Israel -- Ofra Haza, the Israeli singer whose Yemeni melodies have
made her known throughout the world, is in serious condition at a Tel Aviv
hospital. She is said to have developed pneumonia as a complication of
untreated influenza, according to a report in the Jerusalem Post.

In years past, Haza made it on to British pop charts and was No. 1 in
Germany for weeks. She recorded songs for Steven Spielberg's 1998 movie
"Prince of Egypt."

"She is sedated in order to undergo medical treatment, attached to a
respirator, and her treatment includes drugs given intravenously and
dialysis," Dr. Zev Rothstein, deputy director of Sheba Hospital at Tel
Hashomer, told the Jerusalem Post. "If there is significant change in her
condition, the hospital and family will issue a new announcement to the
press."

Haza arrived at the hospital earlier this week with a high fever. "The
general condition of Ofra continues to be serious," a hospital spokeswoman
told Reuters. "Ofra is still in danger."

Haza's family, the Post reported, decided to release information about her
condition after rumors that she was on her deathbed spread. Newspapers
offered up headlines saying that "Ofra Haza is fighting for her life," and
"Ofra Haza's condition remains a mystery."

Since she's been in the hospital, some fans have posted Internet sites
dedicated in her honor, and others have camped outside the intensive care
unit to pray. "I can't accept the fact that she will pass away," one man
told Reuters. "It can't be. I can't accept it."

Haza, who is in her early 40s, was born in Israel to immigrants from Yemen,
who lived in a poor part of Tel Aviv. She was the youngest of nine children.
She had told a television interviewer she grew up in a home that was filled
with song -- her mother having been a well-known singer in Yemen.

Haza's career took off 17 years ago when she won second place in the
Eurovision Song Contest with the song "Ani od Hai" ("I'm still alive"). Her
1993 album "Kirya" was nominated for a Grammy.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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