PM making 'excellent progress': Doctor

A day after undergoing a 11-hour long coronary bypass surgery, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is making "excellent progress" and is eager to return to work as soon as possible, doctors attending on him said. Plan of action | Who is in charge? | Behind the success|

A day after undergoing a 11-hour long coronary bypass surgery, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is making "excellent progress" and is eager to return to work as soon as possible, doctors attending on him said on Sunday.

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"We are happy to inform that the Prime Minister is making excellent progress. .... He is fully conscious, quite comfortable and is eager to return to work as soon as possible," Dr K S Reddy, personal physician to the Prime Minister, said at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) where five grafts were done to overcome the blockages to Singh's heart.

At a joint press conference in which Dr Ramakant Panda, the lead cardiac surgeon who carried out the re-do beating heart bypass, Dr Vijay D'Silva (both from Asian Heart Institute, Mumbai) and Dr Sampath Kumar, chief of cardio vascular unit of the AIIMS, Reddy said that in four weeks, Singh can do virtually all work and could be fit even for a public meeting.

"Even before this, he can do many things," he said replying to a volley of questions on how fast Singh could come back to normal work.

The tube through which respiratory assistance was given to the Prime Minister was removed at 0100 hours today and he has been "breathing on his own", he said, adding "we are hoping to remove most of the monitoring lines as soon as possible."