Bhagawan Sri Sathya
Sai Baba was admitted to this Hospital (Sri Sathya Sai Institute
of Higher Medical Sciences, Prasanthigram) on March 28, 2011
with the complaint of slowing down of heart and intermittent
cardiac block. He was immediately rushed to the Cardiac
Catheterization Lab (Cath Lab) of this Hospital along with the
doctors and was given a pacemaker; an angiography study of the
heart was also done.
After the procedures were completed, He was admitted into the
ICU and was watched carefully by a panel of doctors of this
Hospital. Later in the day, He started developing slightly lower
blood pressure which was persisting to remain low. In order to
bring up the blood pressure, an Intra Aortic Balloon (IABP) was
fitted up into Him in the Cath Lab again where He was shifted to.
In the Cath Lab, Swami tolerated the balloon very well, the
blood pressure and His cardiac condition improved remarkably. He
was taken back to the intensive care after this and closely
watched by the panel of doctors.
By this time, the
Hospital’s panel of doctors wanted some help from outside and
specialists from Bangalore were flown in to help and guide them.
So this continued, and soon the intra aortic balloon was
removed. Swami was progressing well but His basic muscular
weakness and lack of effort on His part to throw out the sputum
led us to the only way of putting the tube into His wind pipe so
that through that tube we could suck the secretions which
accumulate in the lungs. If we allow these secretions to
accumulate in the lungs, chances of infection and pneumonia in
the lungs develop rapidly which adversely affect the life of the
patient. In order to avoid that He was intubated and connected
to a ventilator to give rest to the lungs.
As the procedure was going on, we discovered that gradually the
urine output was also going down giving an indication that the
kidneys are also gradually not so effective as they should be,
therefore it was necessary to assist the kidneys. Otherwise the
toxins in the blood could not be removed; it is the job of the
kidneys to remove these toxins - the nitrogen products of
metabolism from the body. Therefore dialysis was contemplated
and done. After this, it was felt that this dialysis is needed
for a longer period because kidneys did not show immediate
response. As a result, we started a process of dialysis which is
now put into practice by most of the advanced centres of
intensive care and is known as CRRT.
This machine does a very slow dialysis continuously for longer
time. So in that way it differs from the hemodialysis which
Swami has undergone earlier. In order to let the kidneys revive
completely it was necessary to put on this device on which He
was functioning till today morning when again hemodialysis was
done because it was felt that the toxins were not being
completely removed by this slow dialysis process. We did a
hemodialysis with intervention of certain filters and discs
through which the blood was passing through and the result was
that the toxins were removed quite a bit and these discs also
have impregnated antibiotics which are specific for the type of
infections that such patients develop, and this type of dialysis
showed quite good results in the sense that the lung infection
cleared quite a bit and His conscious level improved.
In the morning today, He was quite responsive to outside
stimuli. Because of the tube in the mouth and tubes around He
could not talk of course but He was nodding His head, responding
to our queries. So this was a very good development and the
doctors felt encouraged. That is the condition now; He is
currently in pretty stable condition, with stable blood
pressure, stable respiration rate, blood-gas analysis - the
status of oxygenation of the body is also very good and
maintained, and the level of electrolytes - sodium, potassium,
etc. is also fairly well. Therefore we have hope that the crises
will be tided over. Although I would say that Swami still
continues to be in a critical state of health.
So the efforts of the doctors are going on and shall go on and
He is being constantly - every second - being watched and
monitored by the doctors and the machines. There is no question
of any let down in that respect.
A team of senior and reputed doctors from this Hospital is
working on Him. It consists of:
1) Dr. P. K. Dash
2) Dr. R. Iyer
3) Dr. Neelam Desai
They are assisted by Dr. Prakash Nair, Dr. Shinde and Dr. Rita.
Dr. Krishna Das and his team consisting of Dr. Rajan Anand, Dr.
Patnaik and Dr. Ranga are doing a wonderful round the clock job
of watching over the conditions of Swami in the intensive care
unit. The other doctor involved is Dr. K. S. R. K. Prasad from
the Department of Ophthalmology.
Besides this, a large of number of about 14 to 15 doctors from
outside have been consulted, who have been either flown-in or
have come by car to this place. I would like to particularly
mention the following:
1) Dr. P. Venugopal, the former Director of AIIMS, New Delhi and
a famous cardio-thorasic surgeon of the country
2) Dr. Ashok Seth, a famous cardiologist of the country from
Fortis Escorts Heart Institute, New Delhi
3) Dr. Sandeep Dewan also from Fortis Escorts Heart Institute,
New Delhi, who is very well known intensive care specialist
4) Dr. Amit Verma again from Fortis Escorts Heart Institute, New
Delhi
5) Dr. Subash Chandra from the Department of Cardiology, Manipal
Hospital, Bangalore
6) Dr. Uday Muthani, Nephrologist in the Parkinsons Foundation,
Bangalore
7) Dr. Ravi Mehta, Intensivist of the Fortis Hospital, Bangalore
8) Dr. Arun, Nephrologist, Vaidehi Institute of Higher Medical
Sciences & Mallya Hospital, Bangalore
9) Dr. Kishore Babu, Nephrologist of Vaidehi Institute of Higher
Medical Sciences & Mallya Hospital, Bangalore
10) Dr. Mudgil, Gastroenterologist from UK
11) Dr. Narendra Reddy, Endocrinologist from California, USA
This is the panel of doctors from outside who are being
consulted by our native doctors team who are working round the
clock - every minute and every second - for the love of Swami.
At this point I should mention that we are grateful to the
Government of Andhra Pradesh for sending a team of doctors –
four specialists headed by the Director of Medical Education,
Government of Andhra Pradesh, to look into the treatment of
Swami and suggest any improvements which they think could be
incorporated in the overall treatment. In fact, it was Dr. Ravi
Raju, the Director of Medical Education who suggested that it is
better to put Swami on the CRRT and that suggestion was
immediately incorporated in the process of the treatment of
Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba.
We are also grateful to them to keep a Liaison Officer over
here, Dr. Ashok Kumar who is collaborating with our doctors and
transmitting information, minute-to-minute, event-to-event, to
the Director of Medical Education and receiving valuable
guidance from him which our doctors are looking into; this is
very helpful. This is very welcome gesture on their part.
While all this is going on, Swami’s illness is a great shock to
His devotees and to the doctors of this Institute who are also
His devotees plus professionals. The sole reason for not
allowing everybody to come into the Hospital is to keep the
environmental hygiene of the Hospital perfectly under control.
Particularly in the ICU nobody is permitted where the treatment
of Bhagawan is being done because the purpose is very sacred,
that is, not to increase the medical complications because of
infection. We would be very grateful if the public and devotees
understand this and not try to pressurize us or trespass into
the premises of the Hospital.
In this case I may mention that even the very important persons
coming here so as to enquire about the health of Bhagawan Sri
Sathya Sai Baba cannot enter the nearest area of the Intensive
Care Unit where Bhagawan is undergoing treatment. We make it
possible for them to meet the doctors concerned or the head of
the team or myself and they leave the hospital quietly after we
have briefed them. This is important from the point of view of
infection which can destroy any good work done by the doctors.
We all feel proud along with my doctors team to be able to serve
Bhagawan in this hour of His critical health.
Prof. G.V.: Do you feel Swami is in a better condition now than
when He came to the Hospital?
Dr. A.N.S: Yes, I feel so.
Prof. G.V.: I positively look forward to seeing Him back to
normal not in distant future…
Dr. A.N.S: His response since morning is very encouraging and I
feel that this would definitely happen.
Prof. G.V.: Thank you.