Parvati threatens to sue Kakarla

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD, AUG. 3. Mrs. Lakshmi Parvati, wife of the late N. T. Rama Rao, said here today that her husband received adequate medical assistance before his death but the NIMS Director, Prof. Kakarla Subba Rao, was never among the panel of doctors who treated him.

She renewed her offer to the Government to institute a CBI inquiry into the circumstances leading to NTR's death in January 1996 with a rider that it should also probe financial irregularities in the NIMS ever since Dr. Subba Rao took over.

The NTR TDP president was addressing a press conference to deny Dr. Subba Rao's contentions in his yet-to-be released autobiography, ``A Doctor's Story of Life and Death'' in which he referred to Mrs. Parvati `weaving a web around NTR'' and referring to unfounded stories that he took virility-enhancing steroids.

A visibly upset Mrs. Parvati said she would file a defamation suit against Dr. Subba Rao for making unsubstantiated references to her personal life. She would seek amends for the humiliation he had heaped upon her.

She alleged that Dr. Subba Rao had levelled the charges at the behest of the TDP president, Mr. N. Chandrababu Naidu, who wanted to divert public attention from his sagging public image and his party's setback in the recent panchayat elections and to boost the sales of his book by creating a controversy.

Dr. Subba Rao was neither a cardiologist nor a neurologist and was not in a position to proffer expert advice to NTR. Although they ran into each other frequently as directors of the Basava Tarakam cancer hospital, the NIMS Director never enquired about NTR's health. ``How do I know that NTR used to consult him?'' she asked.

Mrs. Parvati said her husband was under the care of the noted heart specialist, Dr. B. Somaraju, and his team of five doctors. Barely ten days before NTR's death, the cardiologist had NTR undergo a series of tests at CDR Hospitals where a blood clot, discovered after a paralytic stroke earlier, was still found lodged behind the ear. A Bangalore-based expert had warned that the clot could be life threatening.

On the fateful night, she telephoned Dr. Somaraju and one Dr. Kumar when she found that NTR's breathing had become noisy and uneven. But, all they could do was to declare him dead. ``It is quite ridiculous for Dr. Subba Rao to expect me to telephone him at the moment of grief and confusion.''

She asserted that it was because of her care and love that NTR survived for three years after the paralytic stroke. Referring to Dr. Subba Rao's comment that she made NTR captive by feeding him with her hand, she said three fingers on his right hand were totally paralysed due to injuries sustained in film shootings making it almost impossible for him to eat.

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