Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev, spiritual guru and founder of the Isha Foundation, recently underwent an emergency brain surgery after “life-threatening” swelling and bleeding in his brain. The surgery was carried out on March 17 at the Apollo Hospital in Delhi.
In a video posted by the Isha Foundation, Dr Vinit Suri - a senior consultant neurologist at Apollo Hospital, who examined Sadhguru, said that the spiritual leader had been suffering from severe headaches for the last four weeks.
“Despite the severity of the pain, he continued with his normal daily schedule and social activities and even conducted the Maha Shivaratri function on March 8. He ignored all the pain and continued with all meetings,” Dr Suri said in the video.
However, Sadhguru's headache worsened on March 15 when he consulted Dr Suri over the phone. “We knew immediately that there was something sinister happening the way the pain was worsened,” the senior consultant neurologist said.
“He called me around 4 pm and I insisted him to get an urgent MRI done. But he wanted to attend a meeting he had scheduled at 6 pm. Somehow we managed to persuade him to get the MRI done and it showed that massive bleeding in the brain. There was evidence of a chronic bleed of three to four weeks duration as well as fresh bleeding that had occurred within a duration of 24 to 48 hours,” Dr Suri said.
{{/usCountry}}“He called me around 4 pm and I insisted him to get an urgent MRI done. But he wanted to attend a meeting he had scheduled at 6 pm. Somehow we managed to persuade him to get the MRI done and it showed that massive bleeding in the brain. There was evidence of a chronic bleed of three to four weeks duration as well as fresh bleeding that had occurred within a duration of 24 to 48 hours,” Dr Suri said.
{{/usCountry}}While the doctors suggested Sadhguru to get admitted to the hospital immediately, he went on to fulfill his commitments. However, on March 17, the 66-year-old spiritual leader developed a decline in his level of consciousness with drowsiness and weakness in the left leg. He was then rushed to the medical facility.
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“Even at that time he would never complain of pain, but that morning, he told me that the time had come to do what you want to do. That’s the first time he agreed we could go ahead with the surgery…When we got the CT scan, there was life-threatening swelling and bleeding in the brain. The brain had shifted to one side, he had become very dull and very confused. We had to undergo an immediate surgery,” the doctor said.
The surgery was performed successfully and Sadhguru is now off the ventilator, the doctor said.
“He has done extremely well, much beyond exceptions. He is now back to his normal self and is making steady progress. He is probably healing himself more than what we could do,” Dr Suri said in the video.
Sadhguru has launched several campaigns like 'Save Soil' and 'Rally for Rivers' for environment conservation. He has been teaching yoga since 1982. He is also the author of the New York Times bestseller 'Inner Engineering: A Yogi's Guide to Joy and Karma: A Yogi's Guide to Crafting Your Destiny' and has also been a frequent speaker at national and international forums.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi wished the spiritual leader a speedy recovery. “Spoke to @SadhguruJVJi and wished him good health and a speedy recovery,” he wrote on X.
Union home minister Amit Shah also posted on X saying, “Heard about Shri @SadhguruJV Ji’s surgery. I pray to God that he recovers swiftly and is among us soon.”