Chennai: Senior cardiothoracic surgeon, Apollo Hospital, has informed the Justice A Arumughasamy Commission which is probing the circumstances leading to the death of former Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, that the former CM died on December 5, 2016 because there was no blood circulation to her brain.
Dr Sundar, Cardiothoracic Surgeon, Apollo hospital, who was part of a team that put Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) on Jayalalithaa, a heart assist device that aids cardiac and respiratory functions, on Monday informed the Commission about the last minute procedure done on the former chief minister, to save her life.
Dr Sunder said, “After Jaya suffered a heart attack, efforts were taken to revive her on December 4, 2016. As traditional measures failed, steps were taken to fix ECMO on her. ECMO is a life support heart-lung bypass machine that takes over the workload of the heart and lungs to rescue cardiac arrest patients, who do not respond to conventional treatment. In spite of planting ECMO on her, blood circulation was erratic. As a result, function of her brain was severely affected, leading to her death.”
He said the ECMO was fixed on Jayalalithaa as a last resort. Jayalalithaa passed away on December 5, 2016 after being treated in the hospital for 75 days from September 22.
In September 2017, the state government had constituted the probe panel under the Commissions of Inquiry Act, mandating it to probe the circumstances leading to Jayalalithaa’s hospitalisation, and also the treatment provided by the hospital until her demise.
