Former Chief Minister Jayalalithaa refused a suggestion to be flown abroad for treatment, according to her close aide V.K. Sasikala’s niece J. Krishnapriya, who grew up in Veda Nilayam in Poes Garden and lived there until her marriage in 2000.
Sources privy to Ms. Krishnapriya’s deposition made on January 2 before the Justice Arumughaswamy Commission of Inquiry, where she was summoned, said she claimed that Sasikala had thought of taking Jayalalithaa abroad for better treatment sometime in October 2016 when she was in Apollo Hospitals. But the proposal was turned down by Jayalalithaa.
On September 23, 2016, at the hospital, her mother Ilavarasi reportedly told her that Jayalalithaa had gained consciousness in the morning and wanted to know where she was.
On being told that she was in a hospital, the then Chief Minister smiled and remarked to a doctor that they would not have been able to bring her to the hospital had she been conscious at the time of shifting.
Visitor to ICU
Stating that no one, except Sasikala, was allowed to meet Jayalalithaa when she was in the Intensive Care Unit, Ms. Krishnapriya said she, her mother and her aunt stayed together on the third floor of the hospital and Sasikala alone used to go to the ICU whenever she was called for.
While in hospital, Jayalalithaa ate idlis, pongal and tomato rice in small quantities and even had ice cream.
“She likes fruits… Once she ate grapes and began coughing,” Ms. Krishnapriya had told the Commission. [Forest Minister Dindigul C. Sreenivasan had last year apologised publicly claiming he and others had lied that Jayalalithaa ate idli in hospital.]
According to her, on December 4, 2016, a day before she died, doctors said that Jayalalithaa’s brain was functional but the heart could not be resuscitated despite putting her on Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO). “When I reached the hospital, a surgery was underway by cutting open her chest right in the ward. Thereafter, the procedure was continued after shifting her to an operation theatre,” she added.
‘Medical miracle’
She claimed that her aunt Sasikala expected a medical miracle to happen anytime. Therefore, she asked the doctors to continue to keep Jayalalithaa on life support and provide treatment as usual.
The deponent had told the Commission that she was not aware whether Jayalalithaa’s brain was functional when the life support was withdrawn on December 5, 2016.
“ECMO was discontinued beyond the evening hours of December 5, 2016. One of her saris was brought from home and it was draped around the body before we took it home. The body was then laid in the drawing room of the house and rituals were performed with the assistance of a priest… Around seven women assisted in the process,” her statement read.
