Online Desk : The specialist doctors have completed the procedure to implant a pacemaker in Khaleda Zia’s chest at Evercare Hospital in the capital on Sunday afternoon. She will be under the supervision of doctors in the critical care unit (CCU) for the next 72 hours, said Prof AZM Zahid Hossain, personal physician of Khaleda. Earlier, he said, “Madam (Khaleda) has a cardiac problem and there was a block in her heart for which stenting was done earlier. The medical board has decided to implant a pacemaker considering her physical condition”. Prof Zahid, on behalf of BNP and Khaleda Zia’s family, sought prayers from the people of the country for her speedy recovery. Khaleda was rushed to Evercare Hospital in an ambulance early Saturday as she suddenly fell ill at her residence, ‘Firoza’ in Gulshan. She was immediately admitted to the CCU, where medical treatment began under the supervision of the medical board, formed to treat BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia.

Earlier, when Khaleda went to Evercare Hospital on May 1 for a regular health check-up, doctors treated her at the CCU for two days. On June 11, 2022, Khaleda Zia was diagnosed with multiple blockages in her heart at Evercare Hospital. One of these blockages was 95 per cent blocked and was treated with stent placement at that time. The former prime minister, aged 79, has long been battling various ailments, including liver cirrhosis, arthritis, diabetes, and issues related to the kidney, lung, heart, and eyes.

Since her conditional release from prison in 2020, the BNP chief has been receiving medical care repeatedly at the hospital under the supervision of a medical board headed by cardiologist Prof Shahabuddin Talukder. Khaleda’s doctors have been advising sending her abroad since she was diagnosed with liver cirrhosis in November 2021. On October 26 last year, three US specialist doctors completed a hepatic procedure known as the transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt (TIPS procedure) to stop water accumulation in Khaleda’s stomach and chest, and bleeding in her liver.