Khaleda kept in CCU for 72-hour close observation

BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia who underwent stenting in an artery on Saturday after a mild cardiac arrest has been kept under close observation for 72 hours at the Coronary Care Unit (CCU) of Dhaka's Evercare Hospital.

"Doctors say it would not be right to comment on her condition before 72 hours have passed since the operation," Dr AZM Zahid Hossain, her personal physician, said on Sunday.

The 76-year-old former prime minister was diagnosed with three blocks in her arteries in Saturday's angiogram, one of which was 95% and treated with a stent, he told the media. 

"The remaining two blocks will be dealt with after monitoring her condition as she has some other health complications, including chronic kidney and liver diseases," the physician said. 

Meanwhile, BNP Secretary-General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir urged the government to allow taking Khaleda abroad for advanced treatment, saying the country has no such treatment facilities that she needs now. 

"The government will be responsible if anything bad happens to her," he said while addressing a demonstration staged by BNP activists in front of the National Press Club Sunday afternoon demanding permission for her treatment abroad. 

Khaleda was taken to the hospital at Bashundhara Residential Area in the early hours of Saturday after she fell ill suddenly. BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir and other party leaders rushed to the hospital at the time.

Earlier in November last year, she was admitted to the Evercare Hospital and returned home after an 81-day stay.

Khaleda was sent to the Old Dhaka Central Jail as a lower court sentenced her to five years imprisonment in the Zia Orphanage Trust corruption case on 8 February 2018. Later, she was found guilty in another corruption case the same year.

Amid the coronavirus outbreak, the government temporarily freed Khaleda Zia from jail through an executive order suspending her jail sentence on 25 March 2020, with conditions that she will stay in her Gulshan house and will not leave the country.