Mubarak on life support after heart stops EGYPT'S Hosni Mubarak is being kept alive by life support, an official says. Mubarak was on life support and in a coma, the official said today. The state news agency, MENA, said late on Tuesday that Mubarak was "clinically dead" and that doctors used a defibrillator on him several times. It initially said the efforts were not successful. MENA said Mubarak suffered a "fast deterioration of his health." His heart stopped and he suffered a stroke. At that point, he was moved from prison hospital to Maadi military hospital. MENA then reported him "clinically dead." The criteria for using the term "clinically dead" were "poorly defined," said Dr Lance Becker, a University of Pennsylvania emergency medicine specialist and an American Heart Association spokesman. "In its crudest form, clinical death just means that a doctor thinks he's dead - somebody standing at the bedside believes he is dead," he said. "My speculation would be that he had that sort of event where his heart temporarily stopped," said Dr Becker, who is not involved in Mubarak's treatment. That doesn't mean that it's irreversible. He said life support could be used to keep his blood circulating and replace breathing if he was unable to do so on his own. Meanwhile, 16 months after Mubarak was ousted, Egyptians are uncertain about his fate, about who will succeed him and about whether his successor will have any power. Both former prime minister Ahmed Shafiq and the Muslim Brotherhood's Mohammed Morsi have claimed victory in presidential elections. The election commission is to announce the official final results on Thursday. The Brotherhood, Egypt's most powerful political group, is escalating its challenge against the ruling military over the generals' move to give themselves overwhelming authority over the next president. Some 50,000 protesters, mostly Islamists, massed in Cairo's Tahrir Square on Tuesday evening chanting slogans in support of Morsi and denouncing the generals' power grab.