‘President placed on life support’
Published: Monday, 11 Jan 2010



Confusion over the true state of President Umaru Yar‘Adua‘s health heightened on Sunday as ministers and other aides were sharply divided over whether Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan should take over as acting President.

The confusion, our correspondents reliably learnt, grew as fresh facts emerged over the weekend that contrary to reports of improving health, the President might have been placed on life support machine since the last week of December.

Our correspondents gathered that Yar’Adua was transferred in the last week of December from the Intensive Care Unit of the King Faisal Specialist Hospital in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, to one of the supporting wards in the Royal Suite attached to the hospital, after he suffered “a repeated multiple organ failure.”

Reliable sources who spoke with our correspondents in Lagos, Abuja and Jeddah, said the President‘s current situation was responsible for the confusion that his whereabouts is currently generating in the media and presidential aides’ desperation to manage the development without causing panic in the system.

One of the sources said, “The President was moved from the ICU of the hospital on the night of Thursday, December 24 to the supporting ward of the hospital in Jeddah where he has been on life support since.

“His situation is getting similar to that of the former Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, who has been in coma for three years and is only being kept alive with the aid of the life support therapy.”

Another source who confirmed that at least two specialists of African descent were some of the doctors that attended to the President before he was transferred, said the surreptitious manner in which Yar’Adua was transferred gave room for speculation about his present condition.

He said, “Because he was transferred to a section where important patients normally recuperate, the few close aides of the President thought he was getting better and might be recuperating. But the truth is that President Yar‘Adua is in a secured adjoining ward where, beyond the life support machine, only a miraculous recovery can see him through.

“Even if that will happen, it may take a while as he is totally dependent on the life support machine to continue to live. In his present state, he is unable to make use of his organs and senses.”

The source said that since patients who were on life support were not listed as regular patients whose records could be traced at the hospital, it would appear as if President Yar‘Adua was never admitted at the hospital, had been discharged or could not be traced.

“The fact is that the Federal Government signed a Non-Disclosure Order request form, which forbids the hospital from releasing any official information on the progress or whereabouts of the President. I am aware that two people signed the form when the president checked in at the hospital - his wife, Turai and his Chief Security Officer, Mohammed Tilde,” the source added.

Our correspondents learnt that except the Federal Government failed in its obligation to pay or the President‘s family offered an express instruction to have the life support machine removed, the President might be in that state for many years.

“The Federal Government, of course, is able to foot the bill, even if Yar‘Adua is no longer the President and except there is a religious consideration, I do not think the family would be in a hurry to discontinue with the life support. It is obvious that the confusion to reconcile all these developments, in view of the lies that have been told about the President‘s health, has caused the dilemma in the Presidency at the moment,” the source stated.

It was gathered that apart from the First Lady, Turai; the Chief Security Adviser, Serki Muhtar, the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Alhaji Adamu Aliero, the Governor of Bauchi State, Alhaji Issa Yuguda, the Minister of Agriculture, Alhaji Abba Ruma, and Tilde, no top government official has seen or heard from the President since he left Nigeria on November 23, contrary to reports that he signed the supplementary budget and spoke with some state officials on the telephone.

Our correspondents gathered that there was a mutual suspicion among ministers, as none wants to be seen as being disloyal to the President by calling for his resignation or openly supporting Jonathan as acting president.

When contacted on the telephone on Sunday, the Minister of Information and Communications, Prof. Dora Akunyili, told one of our correspondents that she was on vacation and “out of the country.”

A telephone call pulled through to the King Faisal Hospital in Jeddah was not successful as the hospital‘s spokesperson spoke only in Arabic.

When our correspondent told the female voice in English that he had an enquiry from Nigeria on President Yar‘Adua, she said, ”Nigeria, no, no, no,” and hang up the phone.

But a cardiothoracic surgeon at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Dr. Olayiwola Ogunleye, in an interview with one of our correspondents said that acute pericarditis should not take more than a week to treat.

He, however, added that if the ailment was as a result of other conditions, it could take a longer time to treat.

According to him, patients whose essential body systems are not working could be put on a life support, which he explained might involve enteric feeding, mechanical ventilation, defrrillator and, heart/lung machine.

Ogunleye, who is the only cardiothoracic surgeon at LUTH, said, ”It is used when organs of the body are not working. Such organs include the liver, kidneys and the heart. Its usage can be stopped when the organs start working.”


source: http://www.punchng.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art201001112224990