Covid positive Jharkhand minister Jagarnath Mahto shifted to Chennai hospital in air ambulance

RANCHI: Jharkhand education minister Jagarnath Mahto, who has been in a critical condition since his Covid diagnosis three weeks ago, was shifted to a hospital in Chennai in a special air-ambulance on Monday evening. A team of expert doctors from MGM Hospital, Chennai, in coordination with doctors from Bhagwan Mahaveer Medica Superspecialty Hospital in Ranchi, where he was admitted for 19 days, supervised the shifting procedure.

A green corridor was setup in the city to provide seamless movement of the ambulance carrying the 54-year-old JMM veteran from Medica to Birsa Munda International airport.The cavalcade left Medica around 5:20 pm and reached the airport around 6 pm. The air-ambulance took off around 6:30pm and was scheduled to rach Chennai around 9pm on Monday.

Talking to TOI, Medica medical director Dr Vijay Mishra said: “We had shifted the minister to Extra Corporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) treatment on Sunday night after he was unable to maintain required oxygen saturation levels through an invasive ventilator. We kept him under observation for more than eight hours and his condition improved as his oxygen saturation and other vitals got better. Based on these indications, the visiting team of experts decided to shift him to Chennai. A team of four doctors — led by Dr Apar Jinda (pulmonologist) and Dr Murali Krishna (cardiac anaesthetist) — are accompanying the minister.”
Meanwhile, state agriculture and co-operative minister Badal Patralekh was seen co-ordinating the whole exercise as a representative of the state government and he accompanied the doctors and the ambulance carrying the ailing minister to the Birsa Munda international airport.
Badal said: “The state government is committed to providing the best possible medical care to him and we are hopeful that with the prayers of our people and doctors’ efforts, he will recover soon. Chief minister Hemant Soren is also keeping a track on all the developments and his principal secretary Rajeev Arun Ekka is coordinating things from the administrative front.”
In the last five months, five ministers in the 11-member Soen cabinet have tested positive for Covid. While minority welfare minister Haji Hussain Ansari died of a post-Covid cardiac arrest hours after testing negative for the virus last month, Banna Gupta (health), Mithilesh Thakur (water resources) and Badal (agriculture) — have made full recoveries.
In August JMM president and Rajya Sabha MP Shibu Soren had tested positive for Covid and was shifted to a Gurugram hospital. The former CM has since recovered and returned to the state. More than MLAs from different parties were also infected and have recovered.