Behind closed doors: When a sobbing Sasikala fell at a doctor’s feet

A crying VK Sasikala had fallen at the feet of a doctor who was attending on her Akka when Jayalalithaa was admitted to Apollo Hospitals last year in an unconscious condition. Epadiyavathu kaapathunga (save her somehow), a sobbing Sasi was heard telling the doctor, who was taken aback by the outburst of emotion.

Talking to DT Next, a well-placed source, who witnessed the former CM’s hospitalisation from close quarters at the hospital on Greams Road, said Jaya first regained consciousness on September 23, 2016. She wanted to know where was she. “Apollo Hospital, Akka,” Sasikala had said.

The source said that Jaya was not an easy patient. The doctors had to keep her sedated for tracheostomy procedure, because she had a tendency to pull out things like tubes and wires. What the doctors were really worried about was the sudden fluctuations she suffered in BP and heart beat rates. After tracheostomy, speech therapists had a tough time interacting with her. According to the source, Jaya was already in poor health. She used to take tablets but never controlled her diet. Even taking blood sample from her was difficult as she would get impatient with the process. 

“Because of her health issues, it took at least two hours for her to get ready to travel to the Secretariat. But she made sure that the outside world never knew about her health,” noted the source. Jayalalithaa lost 31 kg weight during her 75 day-stay at the hospital. She had a massive cardiac arrest on Dec 4 and never recovered. To save time, doctors decided not to take her to the operation theatre, but brought in all the necessary equipment to her room to perform surgery and revive her heart. But her body was not in a position to survive the cardiac arrest.