Chennai: The Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa has “completely recovered” and it is up to her to decide when to go home, Apollo Hospitals Chairman Pratap C Reddy said here Friday. “All I can say is, very clearly, she is very satisfied... What I mean by very satisfied, that means she has completely recovered. She is aware of what is going on around her,” he told reporters. “She is completely aware of what is happening. Asks and demands what she wants and I believe and everybody, even she, is looking forward when she will go home and take back the reigns,” he said.
“She controls the doctors and nurses around her; what she should do and what they should do”, Dr Reddy said, sounding very happy. Jayalalithaa was admitted to Apollo on September 22 with fever and dehydration. The hospital later said she was being treated for infection with respiratory support. Specialists from All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi and from London have been treating her.
Dr Reddy, in his media interaction, said it was now up to the CM to decide on her discharge from the hospital. “She will ask us very soon when I am going home. I believe it must be on top of her mind...when to go home is a small thing. These decisions will be made by her and we will coordinate,” he said, adding, “It will be not too long before she sees all of you…the most important part of the treatment has been very successful”.
Stating that Jayalalithaa and her attendants were happy in every respect, Dr Reddy said it was the combined efforts by the team of doctors, paramedics and other staff at the Apollo with the “world's best heath care facilities”, besides the prayers of millions of people, that made “this excellent progress in managing the health of our dear CM.” “You know, the hospital has done some part and millions of people across the nation prayed for her and all those prayers have done (their bit) in bringing the recovery.” “We all must say the prayers and the doctors’ team at Apollo and the doctors who visited from AIIMS and England (Richard John Beale), all of them have given the best for her recovery today,” Dr Reddy said.
AIADMK spokesperson C.R. Saraswathy also said the CM would return home soon. Shewas "taking normal food" three times a day and was doing her chores, she said. Apollo Hospitals, in its last medical bulletin on Oct. 21, had said Jayalalithaa was ‘interacting and progressing gradually’. Ever since her hospitalisation, state ministers and AIADMK cadres have been organising special poojas at various temples across the state, praying for her speedy recovery. Prayers had also been held in places of worship in Erode and Karur, among others.
Late last week, an official document had stated that Jayalalithaa used her left thumb impression in the nomination papers of her party candidate for November 19 bye-poll to Thirupurankundram as she had an "inflamed right hand". The document was attested by Dr P.Balaji, Prof of Minimal Access Surgery, Madras Medical College and Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital and signed by Dr Babu K Abraham of Apollo Hospitals as witness. A galaxy of political leaders, including BJP chief Amit Shah, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, DMK treasurer M.K. Stalin, besides film personalities like Rajinikanth and Khushbu, who is also the Congress spokesperson, had visited the hospital and were briefed by the doctors on the CM's progress.
