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Jayalalithaa in ‘grave situation’: 5 updates on her health
Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa’s health shot back into the headlines on Monday as the 68-year-old leader remained critical after suffering a cardiac arrest.
Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa’s health shot back into the headlines on Monday as the 68-year-old leader remained critical after suffering a cardiac arrest.
Thousands of her followers gathered outside the Apollo Hospital in Chennai and best wishes poured in from politicians and people from across India.
Police cordoned off the area and tried to manage the crowd by deploying more than 1,00,000 personnel across the state as the Centre rushed a team of doctors to Chennai. Here are the top five updates on the six-time chief minister’s health from Monday.
1. Jayalalithaa remains on life support and continues to be “very critical”, the latest statement from Apollo Hospital has said. She underwent an angioplasty surgery in the morning to repair blood vessels.
2. Her consultant and intensivist Richard Beale put out a statement saying the situation is extremely grave but everything is being done to give Jayalalithaa the “best chance of survival”. The hospital has said despite their “best efforts”, the AIADMK chief remains in a “grave situation”.
3. The chief minister continues to be on extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) machine, a life-support heart-lung “bypass” machine that takes over the workload of the heart and lungs to rescue cardiac arrest patients not responding to conventional treatment. Any patient can be on the ECMO for weeks.
4. The Centre has rushed a team of four doctors – two heart and two lung doctors – from Delhi’s All India Institute of Medical Sciences. Union minister Venkaiah Naidu is set to be in Chennai to monitor the situation. All AIADMK lawmakers have been called back to Chennai for an emergency meeting also attended by top bureaucrats, media channels reported.
5. Her supporters continue to gather outside the hospital. One AIADMK cadre member died in Cuddalore after finding out about the chief minister’s cardiac arrest late Sunday night, ANI reported. Many others were seen crying and beating their chests in grief.
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