Date:01/09/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/09/01/stories/2008090155860800.htm

Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

Karunakaran to be taken to Vellore

Staff Reporter

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Senior Congress leader K. Karunakaran who is under treatment at the Sri Chitra Tirunal Institute of Medical Sciences and Technology (SCTIMST) here since August 18 will be shifted to the Christian Medical College (CMC), Vellore, on Monday morning.

Mr. Karunakaran will be taken to Arakkonam by an air ambulance which will leave the Thiruvananthapuram international airport at 9.45 a.m. From there, he will be taken by road to the CMC, Vellore.

Airport sources said permission had been granted for the ambulance to enter the tarmac so that Mr. Karunakaran can be shifted to the air ambulance without any hassles.

The air ambulance had been given permission to land at Arakkonam. Later, he would be shifted in an ambulance by road to the CMC, Vellore.

Doctors of the SCTIMST, his personal physician and personal aide will accompany Mr. Karunakaran in the air ambulance.

The Congress leader will be admitted to the Neuro Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation Wing.

The decision to shift the 90-year-old Congress leader was taken after the medical board in SCTIMST has come to the conclusion that ‘the active treatment needed for Mr. Karunakaran is over’ and what he needs now is ‘rest, recuperation and rehabilitation’.

Meanwhile, the Defence Minister A.K. Antony and Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee president Ramesh Chennithala called on the ailing leader at the SCTIMST on Sunday morning.