Former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet continues to fight for his life Sunday after suffering a heart attack, but doctors say his condition has improved.
Dr. Juan Ignacio Vergara, a member of the team treating Pinochet at a Chilean hospital, said an angioplasty performed in the morning to clear a heart artery obstruction "allowed improvement in his condition."
Dr. Juan Vergara said Sunday that Augusto Pinochet was breathing without assistance after the angioplasty, but his life was not out of danger.
(Santiago Llanquin/Associated Press)
Doctors had initially planned bypass surgery Sunday.
"No bypass has been performed and we expect no open-heart surgery will be necessary," Vergara said on Sunday afternoon.
Vergara said that such surgery was extremely risky for someone of Pinochet's age. The former dictator is 91.
"There is a trend toward improvement," he said. "He is conscious, he communicates with us and with his family."
But Pinochet remains in serious condition, Vergara said.
Headlines in Monday's newspapers in Santiago, Chile, describe the seriousness of Augusto Pinochet's medical condition.
(Peter McCluskey/CBC)
"The next 24 to 48 hours will be critical to see whether other complications appear."
He said an accumulation of fluid in Pinochet's lungs "was a secondary problem that has been solved."
Last rites
Earlier, a family spokesman said the former military leader received the last rites from a Catholic priest after being taken to the hospital from his suburban Santiago residence.
He had been taken to a military hospital in Santiago early Sunday after suffering an "acute heart attack" and a buildup of fluid on his lungs, his son, Marco Antonio Pinochet, told reporters.
"We are now in the hands of God and of the doctors. My father is in very bad condition," Marco Antonio Pinochet, said earlier.
He said that doctors "virtually rescued" his father from death by performing an angioplasty to clear his arteries.
Pinochet has used a pacemaker for several years and was diagnosed with mild dementia caused by several strokes. He also suffers from diabetes and arthritis.
In the past, he has been deemed too ill to stand trial on charges of murder and kidnapping.
Last week, he was indicted and ordered to remain under house arrest for the execution of two bodyguards of Salvador Allende, the freely elected socialist president who was toppled in a 1973 coup that brought Pinochet to power.
Around 3,000 people were reported missing or killed and some 28,000 were tortured during Pinochet's rule in Chile, which lasted until 1990, when Pinochet transferred power to a democratically elected president.
He marked his birthday last week by issuing a statement in which he accepted "political responsibility" for abuses committed by his regime.
With files from the Associated Press
A map showing the location of Chile
Former Chilean President Augusto Pinochet, 91, has suffered a heart attack early this morning. His son, Marco Antonio, declared that his father had received his last rites from a Catholic priest and that "he is in the hands of God and the doctors". Pinochet underwent a bypass surgery in the Hospital Militar in Santiago and his condition is reported to be critical but stable. Doctors have reported he is also suffering from pulmonary edema. 

Pinochet came to power in 1973 when the Chilean armed forces led a coup which deposed the left-wing president Salvador Allende. Allende's rule had seen a growing polarization of Chilean society, economic crisis, and terrorist activity from far-left groups. Pinochet set about exterminating his opposition, mainly socalists and communists, and suspended the constiution. His neoliberal economic policies, carried out by the "Chicago Boys", a group of Chilean economists influenced by Milton Friedman, were able to reduce the rampant hyperinflation and stabilize the economy. In 1981, a plebiscite approved a new constitution drafted by Pinochet's government. As the new constitution decreed, another plebiscite took place in 1988 to determine whether Pinochet should remain in power. The "No" option won and Pinochet stepped down. He remained as head of the army and senator until 1998, when he relinquished these positions. He was arrested that year in London for human rights violations, but was able to return to Chile. He is currently under investigation by Chilean officials over tax evasion and human rights violatons. He had recently accepted "responsibility" for "everything that was done" during his government, "which had no other goal than making Chile greater and avoiding its disintegration".