NEW DELHI: President Ram Nath Kovind visited AIIMS Friday to enquire about the health condition of former Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, who is admitted in the ICU there since August 9 and is “critical”, sources said. Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan and Minister of State for Health Ashwini Choubey were also present during President’s visit to the hospital.
According to the sources, Jaitley, 66, is critical and a multidisciplinary team of doctors is supervising his treatment. The All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) has not issued any bulletin on Jaitley’s health condition since August 9, when he was admitted after he complained of breathlessness and restlessness. Last Saturday, after Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu visited AIIMS to enquire about Jaitley’s health, his office had said that the former minister is responding to treatment. In May this year, Jaitley was admitted to AIIMS for treatment.
Jaitley, a lawyer by profession, had been an important part in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Cabinet in the BJP government’s first term. He held the finance and defence portfolios, and often acted as the chief troubleshooter of the government. Jaitley did not contest the 2019 Lok Sabha election presumably because of his ill health. He had undergone a renal transplant on May 14 last year at AIIMS with Railways Minister Piyush Goyal filling in for him in the finance ministry at that time. Jaitley, who had stopped attending office since early April last year, was back in the finance ministry August 23, 2018. In September 2014, he underwent bariatric surgery to correct the weight he had gained because of a long-standing diabetic condition. PTI
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