VK Sasikala's health normal and stable, tests negative for COVID-19, say doctors

Bengaluru: Expelled AIADMK leader VK Sasikala’s health condition is now normal and stable but she will undergo CT Scan and other tests, Director of the Bowring Hospital Dr Manoj Kumar HV said on Thursday. According to the doctor, 63-year-old Sasikala’s COVID test reports have come out negative. The former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa’s close aide, who is serving her jail term at the Parappana Agrahara Prison in Bengaluru, had complained of fever and breathlessness on Wednesday, a week before her release. She was shifted from the prison and admitted to the Bowring and Lady Curzon Medical College and Research Institute, also known as Bowring Hospital. Sasikala’s oxygen saturation level was 80 (against the normal of 95 and above) on Wednesday evening when she was admitted to the hospital. “She had breathlessness. Before that, she had a fever. Accordingly, we gave her treatment. Now her oxygen saturation level is normal, which is 96. Her condition is stable now,” Kumar told reporters. According to him, she took a stroll in the morning. The doctor said she has been sent to the Victoria Hospital for the CT Scan and once the tests are done, she will be brought back to the Bowring Hospital. Prior to it, she had undergone Rapid Antigen and RT-PCR tests which showed her COVID-19 reports negative, Kumar said. Sasikala’s nephew and Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam general secretary TTV Dhinakaran, who rushed to Bengaluru on learning about her illness, told reporters she was stable. “I got reliable information that her health is stable. Doctors are looking after her very well. Good care is given. They are monitoring her,” Dhinakaran said. According to him, the RT-PCR tests show a negative COVID-19 report and hence the doctors decided to conduct some other tests on her. Sasikala, lodged at the Parappana Agrahara Prison here, was sentenced to four years imprisonment in February 2017 in the Rs 66 crore disproportionate assets case. Her illness comes at a time when she is just six days away from her release from prison on January 27