Process begins to take Khaleda Zia abroad for advanced treatment

Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) has started the process of taking the party’s chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia abroad for advanced medical treatment.

Professor Dr AZM Zahid Hossain, BNP standing committee member and Khaleda Zia’s personal physician, told The Daily Observer Online on Tuesday (October 29) evening.

Dr Zahid Hossain said Begum Khaleda Zia will be taken to London first by a long distanced specialised air ambulance. From there, she will be taken to a multi-disciplinary medical centre in a third country.

He expressed the hope that all preparations would be completed soon, paving the way for her to take abroad.

Asked about her current health, Dr Zahid said she is under the medical board’s full-time supervision at Gulshan, and her condition is stable.

He said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has also been informed regarding her departure for treatment as a former prime minister. Arrangements include medical professionals and close relatives accompanying her abroad.

Earlier, Dr Zahid said the process of taking Khaleda Zia abroad would start once permission was received from the physicians at Evercare Hospital.

Meanwhile, Khaleda Zia’s personal assistant ABM Abdus Sattar told the Daily Observer Online that process has started to take Khaleda Zia abroad for advanced treatment. However, the date has not been finalised yet.

The 79-year-old BNP leader has been suffering from multiple health complications, including liver cirrhosis, heart disease, lung and kidney issues, arthritis, and diabetes.

Following the fall of Sheikh Hasina-led Awami League government through the student-led mass uprising, Begum Khaleda Zia returned home on August 21 last after staying at Evercare Hospital at Gulshan over a month.

Khaleda Zia will be taken on an air ambulance equipped for long-distance travel, with onboard medical assistance for the journey to London.

Short-distance air ambulances currently available cover trips to nearby countries like Singapore and Thailand, but the medical team has also consulted with countries that provide 14-hour air ambulances suitable for flights to the UK.

The expert medical board treating her includes specialists from Bangladesh, along with her son, acting BNP chairman Tarique Rahman’s wife, Dr Zubaida Rahman, a cardiologist based in London, and other doctors from the US, UK, and Australia.

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

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

Khaleda Zia was sent to Old Dhaka Central Jail on February 8, 2018, after a special court sentenced her to five years in prison in the Zia Orphanage Trust corruption case.

On October 30, 2018, the High Court raised her punishment to 10 years. Later, she was convicted in the Zia Charitable Trust corruption case.

Amid the coronavirus outbreak, the government temporarily freed Khaleda Zia from jail after 776 days through an executive order suspending her sentence on March 25, 2020, with conditions that she would stay in her Gulshan house and not leave the country.

On August 6, Khaleda Zia was completely freed by an order of President Mohammed Shahabuddin.