Vilasrao Deshmukh on life support, doctors monitoring condition

Vilasrao Deshmukh on life support, doctors monitoring condition

Doctors were closely monitoring the condition of Union science and technology minister Vilasrao
Deshmukh who has been admitted to the Global Hospital in Chennai with a liver ailment, hospital sources said on Tuesday. "Deshmukh is in the intensive care unit (ICU). He has been admitted for related stories
Vilasrao may undergo liver transplant op: Cong sources
liver ailment. Doctors are attending to him in the ICU which is out of bounds for others," a Global Hospital official told IANS on condition of anonymity.

According to him, Deshmukh, 67, was rushed to the hospital Monday evening from Mumbai's Breach Candy hospital in an air ambulance.

"From the Chennai airport he was brought to our hospital in our ambulance," the official said.

Renowned liver specialist Mohammed Rela is attending to the former Maharashtra chief minister.

Dr Rela of the Kings Hospital, London, is also the head of the Global's Centre for Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary and Liver Transplantation.

Hospital officials said a proper medical bulletin would be issued and many of the media reports are speculative in nature.

Deshmukh was undergoing treatment at Breach Candy, where he was admitted a week ago. He was suffering from cirrhosis of liver and his two kidneys dysfunctional.

When his condition deteriorated further, he was put on life support systems and it was then decided to shift him to Chennai in an air ambulance, sources said.

In Chennai, doctors at Global Health City, hoped to carry out liver transplant once his condition stabilised. At present he is on ventilator.

It was around 6pm on Monday when the ambulance jet landed in Chennai from Mumbai.

It took some time for Dekhmukh to be shifted to an ambulance and driven to hospital at Tambaram, closer to city airport.

His wife Vaishali and two of his sons including actor Ritesh Deshmukh accompanied him on the air ambulance from Mumbai, airport sources said.

Global Hospital sources confirmed that the union minister was admitted for liver ailment.

But, so far, neither the Global Health City nor the government have requested for a liver on his behalf, sources at the TN Organ Sharing Network maintain.

Once a request is made, finding a cadaver matching his blood type would be a difficult task, the sources said.

Deshmukh, who had been complaining of abdominal pains for a while, had been taken to Breach Candy Hospital last week for what was described as "a routine check-up".

For the last few months, Deshmukh has been taking light assignments to avoid strain on account of his health condition, a Congress official indicated.