What did Jayalalithaa last say, probe panel releases details
A recording of late chief minister Jayalalithaa's voice, telling a doctor that her blood pressure of 140/80 was normal for her, has been made available to the media by the commission probing her death.
When a duty doctor tells Jayalalithaa her blood pressure was "high, it reads 140 (systolic)," she asks "by", meaning what was the diastolic value.
To this, the doctor replies "140/80," and she replies "its okay for me... normal."
At the beginning of the 1.07 minute audio, which has beep sounds of the monitors, she coughs and says she can hear a sound, (to denote her breathing difficulty) and it was similar to whistles made by fans in cinema houses.
She
also
tells
a
man,
identified
as
Dr
KS
Sivakumar,
her
physician,
that
if
it
was
not
possible
(to
download
a
mobile
application
to
record
her
wheezing)
"leave
it."
In
another
33-second
audio,
which
is
connected
to
the
other
recording,
Dr
Sivakumar
tells
Jayalalithaa,
who
is
breathing
heavily,
that
he
is
recording
the
wheezing
and
it
was
not
"very
intense
now."
Coughing, she tells him "when it (wheezing) was there, I told you, you said it (application) could not be taken (downloaded)."
The doctor says in between that he has downloaded the application (app/to record her wheezing).
Her last voice recordings were made available by the Justice A Arumughaswamy Commission of Inquiry on Saturday, probing the circumstances leading to the hospitalisation and the subsequent death of the late leader in 2016.
Giving a background to the recordings, counsel for Jayalalithaa's aide VK Sasikala, N Raja Senthoor Pandian,said that on January 8, 2018,Dr Sivakumar had told the Commission in his deposition that he had recorded Jayalalithaa's voice on the night of September 27 2016 at Apollo Hospital.
The
voice
recording
was
done
by
Sivakumar,
when
the
late
leader
had
"wheezing
(breathing
difficulty)
problem."
This
was
done,
according
to
Sivakumar's
deposition,
to
send
the
late
Chief
Minister's
voice
to
a
specialist
doctor
for
further
evaluation.
"Today,
when
Dr
Sivakumar
(questioned
by
the
panel
as
its
witness)
appeared
before
the
Commission
for
deposition,
he
submitted
madam's
voice
recording
during
cross
examination
by
me
and
it
was
marked
as
an
exhibit,"
Pandian
told
PTI.
After
her
admission
to
Apollo
Hospital
on
September
22
2016,
she
had
a
wheezing
problem
on
September
27,
he
said,
quoting
Sivakumar's
deposition.
According to Sivakumar's deposition today, after a tracheostomy procedure in October 2016, Jayalalithaa also identified pictures of some deities and spoke a few words with difficulty.
Sivakumar also submitted a to-do list dated August 2, 2016 that covers diet-cum-health monitoring tasks like measuring fasting blood sugar (marked as FBS in the note) and tablets for diabetes, including 'Januvia-50 mg.'
Handwritten by Jayalalithaa in green ink,the chart showed she was conscious of her health and food, according to the deposition.
The chart, that also records her weight (106.9 kg) begins with "lotus water" at 4.55 AM and breakfast of one idli, four slices of bread, tender coconut water of 230 ml and 400 ml of coffee between 5.05 AM and 5.35 AM.
For
lunch
(2pm
to
2.35pm),
she
had
written
basmati
rice
1
1/2
cups,
one
cup
yoghurt
and
musk
melon
1/2
bowl.
Her
dinner
(6.30pm
to
7.15pm)
comprised
walnut
and
dry
fruits
(1/2
cup),
idli
or
upma
one
cup,
one
dosai,
two
slices
of
bread,
milk
200
ml
and
anti
diabetic
tablets.
Coffee
(200
ml)
in
the
evening
(5.45pm)
and
green
tea
(200
ml)
in
the
mornings
were
part
of
her
schedule
(5.45am).
Hitting out at the timing of the release of such information, leader of the opposition in the assembly and DMK working president MK Stalin alleged that the Commission is being used to divert people's attention from the Tuticorin police firing as people were angry at the government over it.
In September 2017, the Tamil Nadu government constituted the Arumugasamy panel under the Commissions of Inquiry Act, 1952.
The panel's terms of reference was to inquire into the circumstances and situation leading to the hospitalisation of Jayalalithaa (on September 22, 2016), and treatment provided till her demise on December 5, 2016.
The Commission had invited all those having "personal knowledge and direct acquaintance" in the matter to furnish information to it till today.
Following Jayalalithaa's death, suspicion about the circumstances leading to her demise were raised by several persons, including the present deputy chief minister O Panneerselvam and his followers.