Chhagan Bhujbal will need angiography: Test

Former deputy minister Chhagan Bhujbal has been recommended to undergo a coronary angiography procedure after a thallium scan test was performed on him a week ago at the privately-run Bombay Hospital, where he is currently lodged. The recommendation was allegedly made after an analysis of the findings of the thallium scan test by a team of cardiologists at the Bombay Hospital.

But it will be the jail authorities and the dean of the state-run J.J. Hospital who will take the final call on the procedure, said Dr B.K. Goyal, who is treating Bhujbal at Bombay Hospital. The Arthur Road jail superintendent Harshad Aherao however told The Asian Age, “I have not received any letter from Bombay Hospital or J.J. Hospital yet. If Bhujbal needs angiography, we need the court permission to get that done.”

Dr Goyal, director, cardiology, Bombay Hospital, said, “We have done his thallium scan test and the reports were submitted to J.J. Hospital. On the basis of the findings of the test, a team of cardiologists here have suggested that he should undergo coronary angiography.”

For now, Bhujbal will be ensconced in the private facility for some more days. He is in judicial custody and was arrested in March by the Enforcement Directorate in a money-laundering case.

Dr T.P. Lahane, the dean of J.J. Hospital, said, “For the angiography, the jail authorities will decide where it can be done, J.J Hospital or Bombay Hospital. I have already informed about this via letter to the jail authorities, now let them decide what to do with him.”

While hospital authorities refused to divulge details of the findings, it is learnt that the dean of state-run J.J. Hospital and Arthur Road Jail authorities will mutually decide whether Bhujbal should be kept at Bombay Hospital or shifted back to J.J. for his angiography.