CHENNAI: Did Jayalalithaa die on December 4, 2016, or December 5, 2016? The 475-page report of Justice A Arumughaswamy has concluded that she died between 3 and 3. 50pm on December 4, and not at 11. 30pm the next day.
This was based on the depositions of echo technician M Nalini and Jayalalithaa’s nephew Deepak J. The judge also quotes Dr Sudha Seshayyan, who embalmed Jayalalithaa at 11. 30pm on December 5, 2016, as deposing that Jayalalithaa would have passed away 10-15 hours earlier.
The Apollo Hospitals prolonged the time of death, knowing well Jayalalithaa was at a point of no return, Justice Arumughaswamy said. The cuts made on her chest to massage the heart (sternotomy) and the CPR exercises were “futile and used as a ploy to explain away the delay in the official declaration of her death,” he said.
Nalini, who was called in to take the Echo after Jayalalithaa suffered a cardiac arrest on December 4, said she noted the heart had stopped functioning and the patient was being given a massage.
Deepak told the commission that he performed religious rites on the first anniversary of her death based on the time of death (tithi) between 3 and 3. 30pm on December 4, based on the information from his aunt’s driver and her aide S S Poongunran.
However, Apollo Hospital’s chairman Dr Prathap C Reddy said in his affidavit that Jayalalithaa continued to show signs of eye movement, heart fibrillation and gag reflex through December 5 while on ECMO, but her progress was not satisfactory. Her condition was assessed at 7pm and 9pm.
The ECMO team noticed that she had very little brain stem activity and her heart function was deteriorating. After a detailed discussion with the AIIMS team on the further course of management, the doctors decided it was not medically possible to continue ECMO. This was conveyed to the chief secretary and ministers, headed by O Paneerselvam and the Lok Sabha Deputy Speaker Thambidurai, besides to Jaya's confidant Sasikala. According to the hospital, Jaya was declared dead at 11:30pm on December 5, 2016.
