Jayalalithaa Had Doctor By Her Side When She Had Cardiac Arrest

Chennai: J Jayalalithaa's doctor was by her side when the Chief Minister had a cardiac arrest at around 5.15 pm on Sunday and the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister was immediately given cardiopulmonary resuscitation, sources have told NDTV.

She was then put on an extracorporeal membrane heart assist device or ECMO, a life support system that aids the functioning of the heart and lung.

After a patient has been on the ECMO for 24 hours, an assessment is considered critical to see whether she needs to stay on the device and that will happen between 5 and 6 pm today, senior doctors said.

Another assessment will be made made after the chief minister has been on the ECMO for 48 hours and if there is improvement, a nuerological assessment will follow.

Hospital sources said there is no bleeding from Ms Jayalalithaa's blood vessels, which doctors see as a positive sign.

Chennai's Apollo hospital, where the Chief Minister has been admitted since September 22, described her condition as "very critical" on Monday afternoon, denying that she had a heart procedure this morning as claimed by her party the AIADMK.

A team of four doctors from Delhi's premier AIIMS will arrive in Chennai this evening and their assessment, post the ECMO report, is expected to be included in a medical bulletin at about 8 pm.

A spokesperson of Ms Jayalalithaa's AIADMK said this morning that the chief minister had had heart surgery and quoted doctors as saying that "she will be fine."  Another said that Amma, or mother as she is known to millions of fans, was "improving."

The hospital's update came after both those statements.

On Saturday, the AIADMK had said that doctors from AIIMS had declared Ms Jayalalithaa fully recovered and said she could decide when to go home.