A medical board overseeing the treatment of former Bangladesh prime minister Khaleda Zia, who remains in critical condition, decided on Thursday that she should be transferred to London for specialised care, her personal doctor AZM Zahid Hossain said.
The 80-year-old Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) chief is expected to be flown out in an air ambulance just after midnight or early Friday. She will go to London, where her elder son and the party’s acting leader, Tarique Rahman, resides.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD
Zia was admitted to a private hospital on November 23 after developing a chest infection that impacted both her lungs and heart. Her condition deteriorated further, and she was moved to the coronary care unit four days later as multiple complications escalated.
More from World
“The medical board has unanimously decided that she will be taken to London via the Qatar Royal Air Ambulance, either after midnight tonight or early tomorrow morning,” Hossain told reporters during a briefing outside the hospital.
Hossain, who is also a member of BNP’s policy making standing committee, however, did not explicitly comment on Zia’s current health condition.
During the last such briefing on Tuesday, he said Zia was responding to the treatment. Hossain’s briefing confirmed earlier media reports that Zia’s family was preparing to transfer her to London while adding that the decision for her urgent transfer was made by the extended medical board incorporating the recently arrived specialist teams from China and the United Kingdom.
The BNP also issued a list saying 14 people, one of them being Syeda Shameela Rahman, wife of Zia’s deceased younger son Arafat Rahman and six being doctors, who will accompany Zia to London.
The others include a party leader and Zia’s adviser Enamul Haque Chowdhury, two agents of the elite Special Security Force (SSF) provided by Muhammad Yunus’ interim government and her personal aides.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD
Qatar had already offered to provide the air ambulance for Zia for taking her to London even as two military and air force helicopters on Thursday staged landing tests at the rooftop of the hospital, where she is admitted. Presumably, she will be flown from the hospital to the airport in one such helicopter.
Meanwhile, a four-member Chinese medical team, comprising doctors Chi Jiang Fang, Yan Xin, Zhong Yuhui, and Meng Huang Wu, arrived at the hospital late on Wednesday night and met with the medical board to review treatment options for the BNP chairperson, the state-run BSS news agency reported.
BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir met the specialists upon their arrival and discussed Zia’s treatment with them, according to news portal bdnews24.com.
The Chinese doctors joined a four-member UK specialist group led by Dr Richard Buell that had arrived earlier in the day to help chart an advanced treatment plan.
The team’s arrival marked the second batch of Chinese doctors, who had arrived earlier this week. A five-member advance team from China had arrived in Dhaka on December 1 to provide preliminary assistance.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD
Interim government chief Muhammad Yunus on Wednesday visited the hospital to enquire about Zia’s health, a day after the army, navy and air force chiefs visited her.
The former prime minister’s younger brother Shamim Iskandar, his wife Kaniz Fatema, and Zia’s deceased younger son’s wife Sharmila Rahman are among the relatives present at the hospital.
Earlier, in a Facebook post on Saturday, Tariq