Jayalalithaa's health: Tamil media reports CM dead, Apollo Hospitals denies reports

At around 5.30 pm on Monday, Tamil media channels began reporting the demise of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa. Namely, Thanthi TV and Puthiya Thalaimurai, which later retracted the information. The Indian Express too followed suit, only to retract its tweet after a few minutes and change its copy to ‘Apollo denies reports of Jayalalithaa’s death, says she is on life support’. The url still reads “jayalalithaa-dies-of-heart-attack-tamil-nadu-chennai-cardiac-arrest-aiadmk”.

This misinformation gave rise to violence outside Apollo Hospitals on Greams Road. Tempers and emotions ran high and AIADMK cadre, on hearing the news, pelted stones outside the hospital. At their party headquarters in Royapettah, the AIADMK flag was lowered to half-mast, though there was no official word on Jayalalithaa’s latest condition.

Sangita Reddy, the MD of Apollo Hospitals, tweeted that a large team of doctors from Apollo and Aiims continue to provide all life saving measures to Jayalalithaa. Immediately after, the AIADMK cadre raised the flag at full mast at the party headquarters after Apollo Hospitals’ denial of reports on Jayalalithaa’s health condition.

Apollo Hospitals said that a team of its doctors and those from Aiims were continuously monitoring the health of the chief minister and denied as “totally baseless and false” reports that she was no more. “Some TV channels are wrongly reporting that the Honourable CM is no more. It is totally baseless and false. They are advised to rectify this mistake based on this press release,” the hospital said in a statement. With inputs from PTI