Doctors deny conspiracy in Jaya's death, but opposition not ready to accept

A team of doctors, who were involved in treatment of late Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa, said on Monday that she had sepsis which caused organ failure leading to her death.

UK-based intensivist Richard Beale, government doctor Dr. P. Balaji, critical care consultant at Apollo Hospitals Dr. Babu Abraham and Dr. Sudha Seshaiyyan who embalmed Jayalalithaa’s body attended the press conference.

Jayalalithaa had come to hospital with sepsis and was conscious, Dr. Beale told reporters adding that she had co-morbidities and uncontrolled diabetes.

Sepsis is a life-threatening condition that arises when the body's response to infection injures its own tissues and organs.

"For a period, she was treated with non-invasive ventilation and her initial condition improved somewhat, but as sepsis progressed, it was necessary for her to be put on ventilator. Later, she was fully interactive," Beale said, adding, "There was no amputation and no transplantation either."

After she suffered a cardiac arrest on 4 December, “at about 5 pm, cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) was started immediately,” Dr Babu said. “When the CPR failed, we put her on extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO). We needed to give the patient time of about 24 hours after we put her on ECMO,” Babu added.

“Her heart was not yet beating. So we conveyed this to the official and her family and medical decision was taken to switch off ECMO, as we felt it was futile,” he said.

Meanwhile, both DMK working president M K Stalin and PMK founder S Ramadoss refused to buy the doctors' statements. The latter said the press meet has only increased doubts on Jaya's death.