Tamil Nadu had asked for AIIMS doctors' assistance to treat Jayalalithaa: RTI

Times of India‎: Puducherry: Saturday, December 10, 2016.

Contrary to speculations that the Union government on its own sent a team of experts from All India institute of medical sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi, to Apollo Hospitals in Chennai to find out about the health status of former Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa, RTI replies by AIIMS said it was the Tamil Nadu government that sought the guidance of AIIMS experts in treating Jayalalithaa.

RTI replies received by a Puducherry-based activist revealed that AIIMS, in an office memorandum dated October 5, had deputed professor (pulmonary medicine and sleep disorder) G C Khilnani, professor (anesthesiology, pain medicine and critical care) Anjan Trikha and professor (cardiology) Nitish Nayak to visit Chennai for clinical examination and treatment of Jayalalithaa following a request from Tamil Nadu government.

"In pursuance to the request received from the Government of Tamil Nadu approval of competent authority is hereby conveyed to depute (the above three faculty of AIIMS) to visit Chennai for clinical examination and treatment of Hon'ble Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu," said the office memorandum.

AIIMS senior administrative officer Manoj Kumar Jha in the office memorandum requested the three experts to leave for Chennai on the same afternoon (October 5). Jayalalithaa was admitted at Apollo Hospitals complaining of fever and dehydration on September 22.

A week after AIIMS deputed the experts, Tamil Nadu principal secretary (health) J Radhakrishnan in an email dated October 12, to the secretary of Union health and family welfare ministry Chandra Kishore Mishra, requested him to send the experts again by October 13 afternoon to deliberate and share their expertise with the specialist team of doctors at Apollo Hospitals.

"...I would be very grateful if the experts from AIIMS are permitted to visit Chennai again latest by tomorrow (October 13) afternoon to deliberate and share their expertise with the specialist team of doctors and other consultants from Apollo Hospitals attending to Hon'ble Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu," Radhakrishnan said in the email.