What exactly happened to Jayalalithaa at Apollo Hospital? Judicial probe to find out

Jayalalithaa was conscious when she came to the hospital

To recall, Dr Richard Beale, the consultant intensivist from the London Bridge Hospital, accompanied by Apollo doctors Dr Balaji and Dr Babu, who were treating Jayalalithaa had said that she was suffering from ‘infection in blood that led to damage of organs.’ Dr Beale had said Jayalalithaa was conscious when she came to the hospital. In response to a query Dr Beale said he had met Jayalalithaa's aide VK Sasikala during the treatment and she was closely engaged in care ‘in a supportive manner.’ But there have been rumours doing the round indicating foul play in her death, with few big leaders pointing fingers at her purported closest aide, the now jailed VK Sasikala.

There have been conspiracy theories and doubts

Amidst all this, Dr Prathap Reddy, chief of Apollo Hospital in Chennai has welcomed the decision of the Tamil Nadu government which on September 25 had announced that it has set up an inquiry commission headed by retired High Court Justice A Arumugaswamy to probe the death of the former TN Chief Minister. Dr Reddy said the hospital will cooperate with the authorities regarding the probe. The hospital has been under a scanner and immense pressure from various quarters. It has also reportedly handed over a timeline of events that took place since her hospitalisation leading up to her death. According to the doctors, medical personnel were present in the room when Jayalalithaa suffered a sudden heart attack on December 4, 2016. "She had a cardiac arrest. CPR (Cardiopulmonary resuscitation) was started immediately. The on-call cardiologist in the hospital came down within a few minutes. The CPR (process) went for 20 minutes but there was no heart rhythm," said a doctor. The doctor added it was decided to discontinue the process after about 24 hours and the decision was taken with consultation with all doctors, including the AIIMS team.