Chennai: State Health secretary J Radhakrishnan has stated that the former chief minister J. Jayalalithaa did not wish to be flown abroad for treatment.
Speaking to the media on Thursday after appearing before Justice A. Arumughasamy commission probing the circumstances leading to Jaya's death, Radhakrishnan said, "As far as I know she was not willing to go abroad for treatment". After she regained consciousness, she did not wish to go abroad. Then in the end there was an unexpected heart attack on December 4, 2016.
However, Radhakrishnan agreed that during first week of October 2016 there was talk about taking Jayalalithaa abroad for treatment.
In the case of Jaya's mentor and former CM MG Ramachandran, he was flown to US for further treatment based on recommendation of doctors 34 years ago. But, in Jaya's case, doctors had not expressed any such opinion.
Since she was in an unconscious state, there was a fear that airlifting her would be highly risky and hence the decision was not taken to take her to any other country.
When asked about Jayalalithaa’s family physician Dr Sivakumar’s wish to perform an angiogram, Radhakrishnan said doctors from AIIMS, New Delhi had recommended against such an intervention. They had given in writing that no interventional procedure was required, not advised either. The treating doctors take the final call, he said. Rajasendoorpandian, counsel for VK Sasikala, said health secretary J. Radhakrishnan informed the Commission that Jaya was not willing to inform others about her ailments. Radhakrishnan said he was not aware that Jaya was facing health related issues due to his participation in various functions. If it was known to him, he would have kept an ambulance at her residence in Poes Garden. It may be noted that the Commission earlier wished to know reasons for not taking Jaya from Apollo hospital to a foreign country for treatment and regarding this it sought opinion of Apollo hospital doctors, IAS officials, and others. Among others, IPS officer Sudhakar and Jayalalitha’s personal securityguard Perumalsamy appeared before the Commission on Thursday.
