Why was President Poudel airlifted to New Delhi for treatment?

Kathmandu: President Ram Chandra Poudel is undergoing treatment at All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in New Delhi.

A team comprising Prof Dr Anant Mohan, head of the Department of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine at AIIMS Hospital, and ICU specialist Dr Punit Mishra is involved in Poudel’s treatment. According to the President’s Personal Secretariat, his health is improving.

Earlier on Tuesday evening, President Poudel was admitted to Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital after he complained of ill-health. Later, he was taken to AIIMS Hospital by air ambulance on Wednesday.

Poudel’s Secretariat issued a press release to inform that he left for Delhi at 10 am on a flight of Shree Airlines for further treatment.

President Poudel was admitted to The Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital in Maharajgunj on April 1 for stomach problems. Poudel stayed there for five days and later returned to the hospital for follow-up test on April 17.

According to Sheetal Niwas, President Poudel has got infection and water accumulation in lungs. Water accumulation in the lungs due to pneumonia is considered a grave health problem.

Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital (TUTH) had also said in a press release that ‘pleural fluid’ was removed from the lower part of the left chest at that time. Pneumonia is treated in Nepal but the reason for taking him abroad for treatment has not been made public yet.

Alongside medical treatment, it is learned that Poudel will hold political talks in India. According to the source, he has gone to Delhi for an informal political meeting as well.

The source claimed that the President is scheduled to hold informal political meetings on the eve of Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal’s upcoming visit to India.

Dahal has already received an invitation to visit India. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has sent an invitation to him for visit through Indian Ambassador to Nepal Naveen Srivastava.

According to the source at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Dahal will visit India between May 11 and May 15.