BNP chief Khaleda Zia does not need to go abroad for treatment, according to the chief of the medical board formed for the former prime minister.
“She has not been diagnosed with anything that cannot be treated here,” Md Shamsuzzaman Shahin, who heads the four-strong board, told Bangla Tribune on Sunday.
“She suffers from rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis. She had undergone a knee replacement, but told us there’s no problem on that,” said the head of orthopedics department of the Dhaka Medical College.
He added that Khaleda complained of pains on her left hand and left leg.
According to him, the prescription by the four-member board is sufficient for now. “She does not need treatment abroad now.
Shamsuzzaman said when they went to the prison to examine Khaleda, she had to take help to walk. “But she walked herself yesterday and seemed better, which means the medicines we had prescribed have worked.”
On Saturday, Khaleda was taken to the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU) hospital for medical tests, after which she was taken back to the jail.
The hospital on Sunday has forwarded reports of her blood test and x-rays to the jail authorities, said BSMMU Vice Chancellor Kanak Kanti Barua.
“Radiology department chief Md Enayet Karim informed me that they have sent the reports to the jail authorities,” he told Bangla Tribune.
Khaleda’s medical board chief Shamsuzzaman said he was aware that the test reports were with the prison authorities. “They may get in touch with us on Monday over those.”
Amid reports of Khaleda’s illness, the board was formed. Other board members are Dr Mansur Habib (neurology), Titu Mia, and Soheli Rahman (physical medicine).
The board examined the BNP chairperson in prison last week and said that her illness was not serious.
Khaleda Zia’s personal doctors had said she had heart, eye and knee problems and have to take medications.
On Apr 4, jail authorities denied a request from her personal doctors to meet her.
When 73-year-old Khaleda arrived the BSMMU Hospital on Saturday, she walked to get on the elevator from the car despite the authorities arranged for a wheel-chair.
Around 11:30am, the vehicle carrying her reached the hospital premises.
BSMMU authorities already had designated Cabin 512 for her, where the medical board examined her and collected blood samples for diagnostic tests.
She was then taken the Department of Radiology and Imaging’s X-Ray Room 1/A, just beside the cabin block for x-rays.
Khaleda was allowed for a brief meeting with her deceased son Arafat Rahman Coco’s wife and daughter, who had been waiting at the hospital.
The BNP chief’s personal physicians— Neurology specialist M Wahiduzzaman and Medicine's FM Siddiqui — were also allowed to meet her.
Following the medical tests, the prison authorities headed for the Nazimuddin Road around 1:30pm to reach the old jailhouse 30 minutes later.