Hope is fading that Austrian President Thomas Klestil would survive after his heart stopped beating twice, triggering failings in other major organs, the doctor leading his treatment said today.
Mr Klestil was under sedation and on artificial respiration after he suffered heart failure yesterday at the start of a week when he was due to step down from office.
"We have actually reached the limit of the medically possible," Dr Gottfried Locker, the head of intensive medicine at Vienna's General Hospital, where Mr Klestil is being treated, told Austrian state television.
Doctors treating 71-year-old president said the heart failures and resulting shortage of oxygen had triggered problems in other major organs, including the president's liver, kidneys and lungs.
Doctors said they could not rule out brain damage caused by oxygen starvation but would have to wait and see when Mr Klestil was taken off sedation.
Mr Klestil was to end his second six-year term on Thursday, handing over the presidency to Social Democrat Heinz Fischer, who was elected in April.
Mr Klestil, a conservative like Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel, was a critic of Mr Schuessel's decision to forge a coalition with the far-right Freedom Party of Mr Joerg Haider in 2000 - a decision which resulted in eight months of international diplomatic sanctions against Austria.
The head of state in Austria has mostly representative functions, but his voice counts on important issues and he can influence the formation of a government.