Bengaluru: All the detractors of Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Arvind Kejriwal are happy these days. The reason is his silence. The chief minister underwent a five-hour throat surgery at a private hospital in Bengaluru for a persistent cough, which troubled him for about 40 years.
The doctors say the AAP leader was suffering from enlarged tongue. “Computer analytics confirmed that a restricted space for the movement of his tongue and an enlarged soft palate and uvula in relation to a slight increase in the volume of the tongue caused kinematic problems in function,” said Narayana Health City Hospital’s Medical Director Paul C Salins.
“The surgery corrected an anatomical abnormality of Kejriwal’s oral-pharyngeal and palatal area, which was causing small amounts of saliva to trickle into his air passages whenever his nose breathing was affected by allergy or other factors,” said Narayana Health City in a statement.
Kejriwal, who arrived in the city from New Delhi on Tuesday for the long-pending surgery, was first diagnosed by Salins for his bouts of coughing. “Soon after recovery, Kejriwal spoke to his family members and had a few sips of water. He is expected to be fully functional in a couple of days although recovery of such a long-standing problem with its own functional accommodation will be gradual,” the statement noted.
A diabetic, Kejriwal, 48, is likely to be in the hospital for about a week under medical observation. The surgery involved correction of a septal spur by Suhel Hasan, head of Oto-Laryngology, and the palato-pharyngeal correction along with repositioning the tongue base relationship by reorganisation of the chin area by Salins.
