Arun Jaitley admitted to AIIMS in New Delhi; hospital says former FM's blood pressure under manageable limits

Former finance minister Arun Jaitley was admitted to All India Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Delhi on Friday after he complained of breathlessness. Union ministers and top BJP leaders — including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, and Health Minister Harsh Vardhan — and Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla rushed to the hospital to enquire about Jaitley’s health.

Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrives at All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) where Former Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has been admitted pic.twitter.com/nW91PEEl25

— ANI (@ANI) August 9, 2019

Later, in a press statement, AIIMS said that the ex-finance minister was being supervised by doctors in the ICU and is currently “haemodynamically stable”. According to AIIMS sources, Jaitley will need to be observed for a few days so he is likely to be hospitalised over this weekend.

“Haemodynamically stable” means Jaitley’s blood pressure, pulse and respiration are under manageable — if not normal — limits. Jaitley was being monitored by a team of doctors including endocrinologist, nephrologist and cardiologist, hospital sources told PTI. Other politicians who visited AIIMS to check on Jaitley were Minister of State for Health Ashwini Choubey, BJP working-president JP Nadda and Loktantrik Janata Dal leader Sharad Yadav. The 66-year-old former Union minister was reportedly admitted to the Cardiothoracic and Neurosciences section of the hospital around 10 am. Jaitley has been suffering from ill-health health for some time now. Nobody outside Jaitley’s family and top leadership in the party has an idea of Jaitley’s health condition. A lawyer by profession, Jaitley had been an important part in Narendra Modi’s Cabinet during his first tenure as prime minister. He held finance and defence portfolios, and often acted as the chief troubleshooter of the government. Jaitley did not contest the 2019 Lok Sabha election presumably because of his poor health condition. He had undergone renal transplant on 14 May, 2018, with Union minister 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 23 August, 2018. In September 2014, he underwent bariatric surgery to correct the weight he had gained because of a long-standing diabetic condition. He had also undergone surgery in the US early in 2019 for a reported soft tissue cancer in his left leg, an illness that deprived him of presenting the Modi government’s sixth budget. He is believed to have undergone some kind of a medical procedure again when he visited the US in April to attend the IMF-World Bank Group Spring Meetings. In May, Jaitley was admitted to AIIMS to undergo tests and treatment for an undisclosed illness and was discharged later. With inputs from agencies