Chennai: Dr Shilpa, an anaesthetist who had attended to former Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa between 1 October and 4 December 2016, during her deposition to Justice A Arumughaswamy Commission of Inquiry said that Jayalalithaa often had mood swings during her stay in the hospital.
According to the Inquiry’s recent order quoting the deposition of Dr Shilpa, Jayalalithaa even wanted to be left alone on several occasions. Sometimes she will smile, sometimes she will say leave me alone.
Shilpa had resigned her job in the Apollo Hospitals in 2017. The deposition of Shilpa has been mentioned in the commission’s order dismissing a plea of the hospital seeking constitution of a 21-member medical board to help the panel examine medical records related to her treatment in 2016. The commission informed that Shilpa was cross-examined only by the counsel for first respondent V K Sasikala and not by the counsel for the hospital.
Apollo admitted to Shilpa’s views adding the critical care doctor’s assessment proved that Chief Minister had cardiac arrest on the evening of 4 December 2016.
“That is the reason the counsel for the applicant hospital has not put any question even though Dr Shilpa was present before this commission on two occasions,” it said.
Health Secretary J Radhakrishnan in his deposition had said that the evidence of doctors from AIIMS, New Delhi, was sufficient and there was no need for any medical panel. The commission had last week dismissed the hospital’s application for the medical board citing the assistance provided by government doctors following its request to decipher the medical records.
Jayalalithaa passed away on 5 December 2016 and the Commission was set up in 2017 by the AIADMK government following allegations and suspicions surrounding her death to probe the circumstances leading to her death.