Dr. R. Jayanthi, the Dean of the Madras Medical College and the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital on Friday testified before the Commission of Inquiry looking into the former Chief Minister Jayalalithaa's death.
Aravindan Arulselvam, who appeared for V.K. Sasikala before the Justice (Retd.) A. Arumughaswamy Commission said that the Dean had submitted a list of equipment that her hospital had in 2016, the year of the former CM's hospitalisation and death.
A source said that the Commission had tried to find out the reasons why Jayalalithaa had to be hospitalised at Apollo, instead of a government facility.
Dr. Jayanthi also submitted that her hospital has no extracorporeal membrane oxygenation device. She said that at her facility, cardiopulmonary resuscitation is performed on cardiac arrest patients: sternotomy and subsequent ECMO are not options available to doctors at the General Hospital.
Mr. Arulselvam said that the Commission also quizzed Dr. Jayanthi on various details of sternotomy. She said that she had never performed or witnessed a sternotomy, but spoke from an academic standpoint on the topic. She testified that sternotomy and chest massage can be done intermittently in order to ensure the continued supply of blood and to avoid brain death.
Discrepancy in statements
On Friday, a source said that the Commission has decided to focus on reported discrepancies in the statements made by five doctors who appeared as witnesses.
The Commission is reportedly focusing on the testimonies of Ramesh Venkataraman, R. Narasimhan, T. Sunder, Minal Vora and K. Madan Kumar. According to the source, the Commission has focused on how sternotomy was done and how long it took to complete the procedure.
The source said that the Commission wants to know if the sternotomy was done intermittently with cardiopulmonary resuscitation. The source said that doctors Venkataraman, Narasimhan and Sunder reportedly told the Commission that it is not possible to perform CPR during sternotomy. They also said that the sternotomy took anywhere between 10-20 minutes.
The source said that the Commission believes that if CPR was not performed on Jayalalithaa during sternotomy, it would have affected the circulation of blood. Various witnesses have testified that brain death occurs if circulation is stopped for more than three minutes.
However, doctors Vora and Kumar distinguished between CPR and a part of it, chest compressions. They said that other components of CPR was administered while the sternotomy was on: the doctors said that compressions were done intermittently with incisions that are part of the sternotomy. This ensured the continued supply of blood, preventing brain death. Both doctor said that the procedure took 30 minutes.
Doctor continues to refuse to sign
A source said that Dr. Madan, who had had objected to the way the Commission had recorded a part of his testimony on Thursday, continued to do so on Friday. The cardiothoracic surgeon has refused to sign on a page of the testimony prepared by the Commission: he does not believe that the Commission recorded the timeframe of performing the sternotomy as he testified.