More than a year after her demise, the causes of which is enmeshed in mystery, it was announced on Saturday by the Apollo Hospital in Chennai that former Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa was admitted to the hospital on September 22, 2016 in a critical condition. “She was very close to everybody’s heart. The advice to the doctors was ‘please don’t say that she is serious becaue you will not be able to control the emotions of the people,” said Dr Pratap C Reddy, founer and chairman of the hospital where Jayalalithaa breathed her last on December 5, 2016.
On September 23, 2016, the chief executive officer of the hospital had issued a release telling that the Chief Minister was admitted to the hospital the previous night as she was suffering from fever and dehydration. “She is under observation and on normal diet” the release had said.
Since then the hospital had issued occasional releases about the health condition of the then Chief Minister in which it was mentioned that she was recovering well.
Dr Reddy himself had addressed a Press conference days before Jayalalithaa’s death when he said that the Chief Minister was in the best of health and she herself would decide when to get discharged from the hospital.
The Tamil Nadu Government has appointed Justice A Arunughaswamy to head the enquiry panel to probe the details associated with the hospitalisation and passing away of Jayalalithaa. Dr Reddy said he has not received any summons from the commission. Dr Reddy said on Saturday that Jayalalithaa was provided with the best available treatment in the country. “But despite that we lost her and that is very unfortunate,” said the doctor.