Rumours unsubstantiated: TN government, Apollo Hospital tell Madras High Court

Chennai: Rumours over the death of former Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa are canards without any basis and substantiation, Apollo Hospitals, Chennai, and the state government informed Madras High Court. The petitioner, P.A. Joseph of Arunbakkam, sought an inquiry commission or a fact-finding committee to probe the death of Jayalalithaa. S.M. Mohankumar, manager-legal of Apollo Hospitals, told the first bench comprising acting Chief Justice Huluvadi G. Ramesh and Justice R. Mahadevan, before whom the case came up, that the petitioner filed the petition based on media information, statements by political parties, social media rumours and they were wholly without any basis and substantiation.

Without revealing specific details regarding her illness, treatment and care given to her, he said all information released by the hospital was done as per her wish and she had expressed her desire that no photographs be released. He said the Apollo Hospital was bound by Medical Council of India Code of Ethics and Joint Commission International (JCI) Standard. Chief Minister was admitted on September 22, 2016 and showed improvement with initial treatment. She was treated with indications that the treatment was moving on a positive scale and right until the time of her sudden cardiac arrest on December 4, 2016. Even at this stage resuscitation procedures were immediately initiated and only after continued lack of response that a medical was taken to allow a natural cessation of life on December 5, 2016.

He said the hospital had not released any misleading or false information pertaining to the treatment and untimely demise of the chief minister. All the information released by the hospital about the Chief Minister was done only on request by the government in the interest of maintaining public order and minimising speculation and rumor mongering, he added. Meanwhile, J. Radhakrishnan, the health secretary, State Government, in another counter affidavit filed by him, has also stated that all allegations in the petition are based on hearsay and conjecture and not based on facts. Revealing the details from the date of Jayalalithaa’s admission into the Apollo hospital, he said Apollo Hospital had obtained an expert opinion from Dr Richard Beale, an international specialist and consultant from Guy’s St. Thomas Hospital London.

On request from state government, a team of specialists headed by Dr G.C. Khilnani, Professor, Department of Pulmonary Medicine and Sleep Disorder was deputed by the All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS), New Delhi for consultations on the treatment being administered by the team of doctors of Apollo Hospitals. Listing out the visit of experts from AIIMS apart from the release of medical bulletin by the hospital, two press releases were issued by Raj Bhavan after the visit of the Tamil Nadu Governor to Apollo Hospitals. The bench posted the matter for further hearing to March 13, 2017.