BNP chief Khaleda Zia fitted with pacemaker

She has been kept under close observation for the next 72 hours

BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia has been fitted with the a permanent pacemaker due to a low heart rate at Dhaka’s Evercare Hospital.

Following the recommendations of the medical board overseeing Khaleda’s care, a permanent pacemaker was surgically installed in her heart today at 4pm, her personal physician and Medical Board member Professor AZM Zahid Hossain at 8:30pm.

The 79-year old politician has been kept under close observation in the Critical Care Unit for the next 72 hours and the expert medical team will make further decisions regarding her treatment, he said.

The medical board, led by cardiologist Prof Shahabuddin Talukder from Evercare, implanted the BNP chief's pacemaker.

The team, including specialist doctors Prof Atahar Ali Khan, Prof Shams Munwar, Prof AQM Reza, Prof Lutful Aziz, Prof Zafor Iqbal, and Prof Niaz Ahmed, began the procedure around noon.

A pacemaker is an artificial electrical device that generates electrical impulses and sends them to the heart muscles to help control the heart's rhythm.

When the heart's own pacemaker or SA node cannot generate enough 'pulses' or when the heart's conduction pathways are blocked, the pacemaker's primary job is to keep the pace of the heart at a certain level so the heart can function properly.

The former prime minister was taken to Evercare Hospital by ambulance on Saturday morning after she was suddenly taken ill.

The medical team overseeing Khaleda’s care includes 11 specialist physicians, among them Prof FM Siddiqui, Prof Shamsul Arefin, and Prof AQM Mohsin. Zubaida Rahman, Khaleda Zia’s daughter-in-law and a cardiologist from London, along with specialists from the US and Australia, are also connected virtually as members of the medical board.

The former prime minister suffers from a range of medical issues including diabetes, arthritis, heart disease, and various complications with her lungs, liver, and kidneys.

She has been hospitalised several times before this, most recently on May 2 at Evercare. She stayed in the CCU for two days.

Khaleda was sent to jail in 2018 after her conviction in a graft case. At the start of the coronavirus pandemic, at the request of her family, the government issued an executive order granting her temporary release from jail on two conditions. The conditions are that she has to receive treatment from home and cannot leave the country.

Over the past few years, her family has repeatedly sought permission to take Khaleda abroad for treatment, but the government has remained steadfast in its refusal, reiterating the conditions of her release.