Endocrinologist appears before panel probing J Jayalalithaa’s death

CHENNAI: An endocrinologist who had prescribed medicines to former chief minister J Jayalalithaa in 2015 appeared before the Justice (retd) A Arumughaswamy commission on Thursday. The commission is probing the circumstances surrounding the hospitalisation and eventual death of Jayalalithaa in December 2016.

Dr Sivagnana Sundaram, sources said, had a short deposition before the judge. He had not met Jayalalithaa during her hospitalisation.

On Wednesday, Dr U Meenakshisundaram, a neurologist with Apollo Hospitals, appeared before the commission.

The commission wanted to know the protocol for the diagnosis of brain death from Dr Sundaram, sources said. He was posed questions pertaining to the same subject. Meenakshisundaram was not among the doctors who had seen or treated Jayalalithaa during her stay in the hospital, but had treated her earlier when he was working with another private hospital in the city.

The commission wanted to know how long it would take after cardiac arrest to declare a person brain dead. It is the commission’s contention that in Jayalalithaa’s case the supply of oxygenated blood to the brain may have stopped during the cardio-pulmonary resuscitation (CPR) after she got a cardiac arrest on December 4 evening as there was no blood supply for 25 minutes while the doctors carried out the CPR and sternotomy procedure, sources said. Doctors have testified stating that the process, which was part of setting up the ECMO, is like a synchronised dance and no blood supply would have been stopped to the brain.

The doctor told the commission that two neurological examinations are conducted in intervals of six hours each which would determine brain death.