After ‘sudden setback’, vitals of Karunanidhi now ‘normal’

CHENNAI: DMK president M Karunanidhi’s “vitals were normalising” after his health took a “transient setback” Sunday evening at the Kauvery Hospital, which remains swarmed by crowds of well-wishers and supporters of the five-time Tamil Nadu chief minister.

“There was a transient setback in the clinical condition of Karunanidhi. With the active medical support, his vitals are normalising.

He continues to be closely monitored and treated by the panel of expert doctors,” Dr Aravindan Selvaraj, hospital’s executive director, said in a medical bulletin issued at 9.50pm.

Karunanidhi was admitted in the hospital Saturday after a sudden deterioration in his health.

He underwent a procedure for the replacement of a tracheostomy tube to help him breathe normally.

DMK leader and former Union minister A Raja told reporters present there “not to believe in rumours”. “It is true that there was a transient setback. But it has been set right due to intensive medical care.

Do not believe in rumours. He continues to be treated in the ICU,” he said. Hundreds of policemen are deployed in and around the hospital in upscale Alwarpet. A steady stream of DMK supporters visited the hospital since morning, but the crowd began swelling since 7.30pm as news spread about the deterioration in his condition, prompting the police force to make additional deployment of personnel.

Many party workers, especially women, were seen crying.

They heaved a sigh of relief after the medical bulletin said he was breathing normally and his vital parameters had stabilised, even as party workers began clapping and shouting slogans praising the DMK patriarch.

Chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami, who was at an event in Salem, decided to rush back to Chennai from Coimbatore.