‘Risky to operate on Sanjeevan now’

Health DG Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah says doctors at Serdang Hospital have decided not to operate on the Mywatch chief just yet.

PETALING JAYA: Any operation on MyWatch chief R Sanjeevan at this stage would be risky, said Health Ministry director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah today.

Sanjeevan who was shot by two men in an assassination attempt in Bahau, Negeri Sembilan, on July 27 has been awaiting surgery to remove a bullet lodged in his abdomen.

He was first admitted to the Tuanku Jaafar Hospital in Seremban before being transferred to the Serdang Hospital on July 31.

In explaining the delay, Noor Hisham said: “It is a clinical decision. The benefit must outweigh the risk. Scanned images have shown there are no major injuries to Sanjeevan’s vital organs.”

The doctors’ conservative approach of inserting a chest drainage tube into the penumothorax, according to Noor Hisham, is safer than performing an operation on him at this point in time.

Since Sanjeevan was transferred to the Serdang Hospital, doctors have been treating him with drugs to stabilise his condition.

According to his father P Ramakrishnan, the doctors informed him that Sanjeevan is still unconscious due to the drugs being administered to him.

A special task set up by Bukit Aman to investigate the shooting is also waiting for the hospital’s clearance to interview Sanjeevan after getting several possible leads.

Sanjeevan was about to expose corruption in police force and name the police personnel involved in drug syndicates a day prior to the attempt on his life.