Chennai: Former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa was fully conscious a day before she suffered a massive cardiac arrest which led to deterioration of her condition followed by the death a day after, According to a report of AIIMS doctors who attended on her released on Monday.
"She was fully conscious. She could sit in the chair for 20 minutes or so, but could not stand as there was neuromuscular weakness," G C Khilnani and three other doctors said in their report, detailing their visit to Apollo Hospitals here on December 3.
Their report was released by the State government.
The team returned to Delhi the same day and arrived again on December 5 evening, which was their fourth and last visit.
On arrival the team said they were "informed that Jayalalithaa had a cardiac arrest at about 4.30 PM on December 4 and received cardiopulmonary resuscitation for 45 minutes, following which an open cardiac massage was done and she was put on ECMO (Extracorporeal Membrance Oxygenation) and external cardiac pace maker."
She was hypothermic and was on continuous hemodialysis, it said.
"The neurologist opined that there was no response to any stimuli, however, true neurologic status could not be assessed because of hypothermia. It was decided to bring the body temperature to normal and then assess the status again," it said.
An assessment was again done at about 10 PM when normal body temperature was attained and there was rapid drop in blood pressure when the ECMO tube was clamped, indicating that the heart had no function.
"Also, on momentarily switching off the pacemaker, there was straight line on the ECG monitor. There was no neurologic improvement as opined by the neurologist and all parameters denoted futility of life support," it added.
The AIIMS team agreed with the inference on futility of life support in view of clinical parameters and it was decided that the treating (Apollo) team would discuss the "present clinical situation regarding futility of life support" with family members, relatives of Jayalalithaa and take further decision.
She died on December 5. The AIIMS team returned to Delhi on December 6 morning.
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