Former Prime Minister and main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia returned home from Evercare Hospital on Thursday after receiving treatment for her various health complications for over five months.
The BNP chief left the hospital at about 5:00pm and reached her Gulshan residence around an hour later.
Party standing committee members Abdul Moyeen Khan, Nazrul Islam Khan, and Selima Rahman received Khaleda as she reached her house in capital’s Gulshan area.
Khaleda’s personal physician and party vice-chairman AZM Zahid Hossain said that the BNP chief was taken back home as the medical board discharged her from the hospital.
Zahid said that the medical board would provide Khaleda with necessary treatment at her Gulshan’s residence and all preparations had been made there in this regard.
On August 9, 2023, she was admitted to the Evercare Hospital as she suddenly fell sick. The BNP chief underwent treatment there since then for various health complications.
The 78-year-old former prime minister has long been suffering from various ailments, including liver cirrhosis, arthritis, diabetes, kidney, lung, heart, and eye problems.
On October 26, 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.
The US doctors--Hamid Rabb, Christos Georgiades, and James P. A. Hamilton from Johns Hopkins University’s School of Medicine--went to Bangladesh on October 25 and decided to complete the TIPS procedure after assessing Khaleda’s health condition and test reports.
TIPS is a procedure that involves inserting a stent (tube) to connect the portal veins to adjacent blood vessels that have lower pressure. This relieves the pressure of blood flowing through the diseased liver and can help stop bleeding and fluid backup. A TIPS also relieves the high blood pressure in the portal vein (called portal hypertension) that often occurs in the setting of liver cirrhosis.
Khaleda’s doctors have been recommending sending Khaleda abroad since she was diagnosed with liver cirrhosis in November 2021.
