Jaya Panel Flags ‘Issues’ in Treatment; Apollo Refutes Allegations

A petition was filed before the Commission on Saturday, raising serious medical issues regarding her treatment.

File image of former Tamil Nadu CM J Jayalalithaa.

(Photo: Reuters)

The Apollo Hospital administration on Sunday, 30 December, condemned ‘misreporting’ by a Commission of Inquiry probing the death of J Jayalalithaa, saying “we stand by her medical treatment”.

CNN-News18 quoted Apollo authorities as saying that the probe panel had misrepresented facts.

In a petition before the Justice A Arumughaswamy Commission of Inquiry, the probe panel's Standing Counsel had said that VK Sasikala and Apollo Hospitals had colluded in the treatment of Jayalalithaa, The Economic Times reported.

This, the panel claimed, was evident in the failure of Apollo Hospitals in performing an angiogram on the former chief minister.

‘Serious Medical Issues in Treatment’

A petition had been filed before the Commission on Saturday, raising serious medical issues regarding her treatment at the Apollo Hospital.

The hospital, however, strongly refuted the allegations against it raised in the petition.

Commission sources told PTI that the plea filed by the standing counsel for the commission seeks to implead Tamil Nadu Health Secretary J Radhakrishnan and former chief secretary P Rama Mohana Rao over their statements and depositions.

A statement issued Saturday night by Apollo Hospital said it was served a copy of the petition dated 27 December.

"It is surprising that the commission is itself filing this petition against other parties," the hospital said, adding that the proceedings before the inquiry panel cannot be "accusatorial" in nature.

The hospital said the plea before the panel referred to three senior doctors advising an angiogram on Jayalalithaa.

"This is incorrect. It was only a single external doctor, who on 25 November 2016 visited the late CM for a few minutes and suggested immediate angiogram without going into all the other co-morbidities, including her compromised respiratory condition, which could have potentially inhibited the desired outcome," it said.

Apollo Demands Appointment of Medical Board

The hospital said its team of doctors and Richard Beale, a UK-based specialist, did not think it was wise to do an angiogram based on the medical opinion of that doctor who wanted to "perform the procedure and leave immediately out of the country with no commitment to her follow-up care."

Citing medical evidence in the form of depositions of multiple doctors, and related medical reports including echo-cardiogram and blood tests, the hospital asked why was the "commission choosing to ignore the material evidence in this regard".

Also, the hospital said the petition wrongly spelt 'sternotomy' as "stenotomy".

Complicated medical terminologies in English have been incorrectly translated into Tamil and the context and meaning of medical facts have been lost in interpretation and translation, the hospital alleged.

“This petition only strengthens our case for the immediate appointment of a medical board who will understand the complexities of the late CM’s treatment,” he said.

The hospital argued that without a medical board no finding of the panel would be "complete" or based on medical science. "The Supreme Court has repeatedly held that a judge cannot substitute a medical specialist's opinion with his own," it said.

Jayalalithaa had died on 5 December 2016.

(With inputs from PTI)