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Pranab 'active,' likely to be discharged Tuesday
By IANS,
Apr 9, 2007 - 7:23:31 PM
New Delhi, April 9 - External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee has not allowed a potentially fatal road accident to dim his zest for work with doctors finding him 'cheerful and active' and saying that he may be discharged from the Army Hospital as early as Tuesday.
A team of top specialists Monday reviewed the minister's health in the morning and were satisfied with the fast pace at which Mukherjee was recovering from head injuries caused by a road accident near Kolkata Saturday night.
'He is able to walk around and is progressing well. He is expected to be discharged from the hospital tomorrow,' a medical bulletin issued by the Army Research and Referral Hospital said in the afternoon.
A fresh round of investigations and scans on Mukherjee, including CT and MRI head, and CT chest, were done Monday. 'These tests ruled out any bony or internal injuries,' the bulletin added.
'His vital parameters continue to be within normal limits. He has a lacerated wound scalp, which is clean and has nine sutures. Apart from this, there are no other bony or soft tissue injuries,' it added.
Chief of Army Staff Gen J.J. Singh was one of those to visit the minister in the hospital. Senior Political leaders cutting across the ideological divide also visited the minister, widely seen as the number two in the government.
Vice-President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram, Congress stalwarts like Digvijay Singh and Gurudas Kamat and Communist Party of India-Marxist leaders Sitaram Yechury and Prakash Karat came to see Mukherjee and wished him quick recovery.
The 72-year-old Congress leader, who heads a number of crucial inter-ministerial committees, sustained severe head injuries when a truck hit his car at Bethuadahari, about 130 km from Kolkata Saturday night.
The truck swerved out of control after one of its tyres punctured and overturned on Mukherjee's car. He was on his way to Kolkata from Murshidabad, where he had gone to inaugurate a book fair.
After being given initial treatment near Kolkata, the minister was flown to New Delhi Sunday in a special military aircraft. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, in a special gesture, was present at the military airport to receive him and kept in touch with the hospital authorities about his health.
If the accident had not come in the way, Mukherjee would have been in Riyadh Monday. The minister was scheduled to go to Saudi Arabia on a three-day visit to further intensify ties between India and Saudi Arabia.
Mukherjee is not expecting any high-profile visitor from abroad this week, official sources told IANS. Going by the rate of his recovery, Mukherjee gets busy again next week when Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko is likely to be in India.
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