Khaleda to stay in hospital for ‘some more’ days after angioplasty

BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia will have to stay in hospital for “some more” days as doctors want to keep her under observation after she underwent angioplasty with stenting following a heart attack.

Her personal physician Professor AZM Zahid Hossain said the board of doctors at Evercare Hospital took the decision on Monday after reviewing her test reports. They will sit again at 5pm on Tuesday after the end of a 72-hour observation.

Khaleda was convicted in two graft cases and taken to jail three years ago. In April 2020, in the light of the COVID pandemic, the government granted a request from her family for a conditional temporary release from jail for “humanitarian reasons”.

She has since stayed at her Gulshan home under the care of her personal doctors and has had limited interaction with others.

She was rushed to the private facility after she suddenly fell ill in the wee hours of Saturday. Doctors found three blocks in her blood vessels and conducted angioplasty to free one of the blocks. They could not work on the two other blocks at that time considering other health issues, Dr Zahid said.

The 76-year-old former prime minister had a ‘routine’ health check-up at the private hospital in early April as she has been suffering from arthritis, diabetes, kidney, lung and eye issues for a long time.

She was diagnosed with COVID-19 and spent nearly three months in hospital care last year. She also experienced bleeding in the digestive tract and liver cirrhosis.