Khaleda Zia taken to Evercare Hospital for check-up

Dhaka, May 1 -BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia was taken to Evercare Hospital in the capital this evening for health check-up.

She arrived at the hospital from her Gulshan residence around 7:05 pm, said her media wing member Shamsuddin Didar.

He said the BNP chairperson will undergo several tests at the hospital as per the advice of her medical board.

Didar said the medical board will decide whether she needs to be hospitalised after observing her condition and assessing the test reports.

The 78-year-old former prime minister has long been suffering from various ailments, including liver cirrhosis, arthritis, diabetes, and issues related to kidney, lung, heart, and eye.

Earlier on March 31, the BNP chairpersons was admitted to the hospital and stayed there for two days for some pathological tests and regular examinations.

Since her conditional release from jail in 2020, the BNP chief has been receiving treatment at the hospital under a medical board headed by cardiologist Prof Shahabuddin Talukder.

Khaleda was sent to the Old Dhaka Jail after a lower court sentenced her to five years' imprisonment in the Zia Orphanage Trust corruption case on February 8, 2018. Later, she was found guilty in another corruption case the same year.

Amid the coronavirus outbreak, the government temporarily freed Khaleda Zia from jail through an executive order, suspending her sentence on March 25, 2020, with the condition that she stay in her Gulshan house and not leave the country. That has since been extended multiple times to keep her out of jail.

Khaleda’s doctors have been recommending sending her abroad since she was diagnosed with liver cirrhosis in November 2021.

On October 26 last year, three US specialist doctors completed the hepatic procedure known as transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt (TIPS procedure) to stop water accretion in Khaleda Zia’s stomach and chest, and bleeding in her liver. - UNB