Chennai: Tamil Nadu chief minister and All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) supremo J. Jayalalithaa has been shifted from intensive critical care unit (ICCU) to a normal ward on Saturday, her party said.
This comes nearly two months after Jayalalithaa’s hospitalisation.
The 68- year-old was admitted on 22 September at the Apollo hospital in Chennai with complaints of “fever and dehydration”. Later she was given treatment for lung congestion and continued to stay on respiratory support.
On Friday, Apollo Hospital chairman Prathap C. Reddy confirmed the chief minister was able to breathe on her own without respiratory support.
He had added that despite the improvement, Jayalalithaa is being kept on ventilator for 15 minutes daily so that “her lungs could expand” and continues to be kept at the hospital’s critical care unit to avoid infection.
Last Sunday, the AIADMK supremo in a statement said she had taken “rebirth”.
Along with the doctors at the Apollo, Richard John Beale—consultant and intensivist from the London Bridge Hospital—and a team of doctors from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Delhi, were treating the chief minister.
While an air of secrecy has remained around Jayalalithaa’s health, over the past two months, the last official health update from the hospital authorities came almost a month ago. It said she was “interacting and progressing gradually.”
With Jayalalithaa hospitalized, her trusted aide O. Pannerselvam has been given charge of all her portfolios.
