Ex-Bangladesh PM Khaleda returns home from hospital

Bangladesh Nationalist Party chairperson Khaleda Zia returned home on Saturday night from a city hospital after some health workers at the hospital have contracted the delta variant of Covid-19, said her doctor.

She returned home after 54 days as she was admitted there on April 27 with Covid-19 infection, said Khaleda’s medical team chief AB Siddique.

The BNP chairperson reached her Gulshan house in Dhaka at about 8:40pm from Evercare Hospital, said BNP chairperson’s media wing member Syrul Kabir Khan.

At a press briefing, AB Siddique said that they decided to shift Khaleda from the hospital because some health workers of the hospital had recently infected with the delta variant which increased the risk of Khaleda’s health.

He said that Khaleda’s condition was not out of risk as she was still seriously ill.

‘Some complications were detected during the treatment which she contracted in last few years. The diseases were not traced because she was out of diagnosis,’ he said.

He also said that Khaleda was still suffering from different diseases including heart-, kidney- and liver-related complications.

‘She has not recovered completely. Treatment of her kidney and liver diseases is not possible in the country,’ he added.

Siddique also said that they would take Khaleda to hospital in three weeks to check her health.

‘In the meantime, her treatment will continue at home,’ he said, adding that Khaleda had contracted some viral infections in the hospital. 

He said that she had blood transfusion three times during her treatment at the hospital treatment, though she never required blood transfusion earlier.

The 74-year-old former prime minister tested positive for Covid-19 on April 11 and negative on May 5.

She was admitted to the hospital on April 28 and later shifted to the coronary care unit on May 3.

She was returned to general cabin form the CCU on June 3.

Khaleda, who was released from jail on an executive order on conditions, was under treatment at the hospital as the government rejected a plea of her family for allowing her to go abroad for advanced treatment.

According to her family and doctors, alongside post-Covid complications, Khaleda also suffers from severe and uncontrolled rheumatoid arthritis, diabetes mellitus, hypertension, cough-variant asthma and an autoimmune disorder that damages moisture-producing glands making it difficult to produce saliva and tears, with a need for bilateral knee replacement.

On May 5, the BNP chairperson’s younger brother Shamim Eskander submitted the application to home minister Asaduzzaman Khan seeking permission to send her abroad for better treatment.

On May 9, he told reporters that the government had rejected the application as Khaleda was a convict and there was no instance of allowing a convict to go abroad for treatment, though there were precedents of such permission in the country.

Khaleda was released from Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University’s prison cell on March 25, 2020, initially for six months, on an executive order on condition that she would take medical treatment at home and would not leave the country. Her release was later extended twice on same condition.

News courtesy- https://www.newagebd.net/article/141256/ex-bangladesh-pm-khaleda-returns-home-from-hospital