Jaitley's health update: Former FM critical but stable

New Delhi, Aug 13: Former finance minister Arun Jaitley, who was admitted to AIIMS on August 9, is still in the hospital's ICU and is critical, but haemodynamically stable, sources said on Tuesday. A hemodynamically stable patient has a stable heart pump and good blood circulation. The All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) has not issued any bulletin on Jaitley's health condition after Friday, when he was admitted.

On Saturday, after Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu visited AIIMS to enquire about Jaitley's health, his office had said that the former minister is responding to treatment. Sixty-six-year-old Jaitley was admitted to the AIIMS' Intensive Care Unit (ICU) on Friday morning after he complained of breathlessness and restlessness.

Doctors had then said he is "haemodynamically stable" and a multidisciplinary team of doctors is supervising his treatment. The hospital did not issue any fresh bulletin on Jaitley's health either on Saturday or Sunday.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, MoS for Health Ashwini Choubey, BJP working president J P Nadda and Loktantrik Janata Dal chief Sharad Yadav, were among others who visited the hospital on Friday to enquire about Jaitley's health.

In May this year, Jaitley was admitted to AIIMS for treatment. A lawyer by profession, Jaitley had been an important part in Narendra Modi's Cabinet during his first tenure as prime minister. He held the finance and defence portfolios, and often acted as the chief troubleshooter of the government.

Jaitley did not contest the 2019 Lok Sabha elections presumably because of his ill-health. He had undergone renal transplant on May 14 last year with Piyush Goyal filling in for him in the finance ministry at that time.

Jaitley, who had stopped attending office since early April 2018, was back in the finance ministry on August 23, 2018. In September 2014, he underwent bariatric surgery to correct the weight he had gained because of a long-standing diabetic condition.

PTI