Doctors maintaining a delicate balance while treating Nawaz Sharif

LAHORE: While the former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s health is stable for now, doctors say that they have to maintain “a very delicate balance” while treating him.
“Thankfully, today he is fine and talking normally,” Professor Dr. Fatima Khanum told Arab News over the phone, “But he is diabetic, hypertensive and has a heart disease, which are some complications.”
Dr. Khanum is a part of the 10-member medical board constituted by the Punjab government on October 23 to monitor Sharif’s health after he was rushed to the state-run Services Hospital in Lahore last week as his health deteriorated.
The three-time premier was previously in prison, serving a seven-year sentence in connection to charges of corruption. Earlier this month, he was shifted to the custody of the anti-graft body for probe into another case of alleged corruption and money laundering.
While undergoing treatment at the hospital, Sharif suffered angina pain. When the doctors gave the politician medicines for his heart, his palette count fell under 30,000, Dr. Khanum explained. “When a platelet count decreases it leads to bleeding in a patient,” the doctor said, “And that is what happened in his case. There were rashes and marks on his skin.” Platelets are cells that help with the formation of a blood clot in a body. A normal count can range from 150,000 to 400,000.
For now, the medical board has discontinued his heart medication till his platelet count increases. “We are trying to maintain a very delicate balance,” the doctor added.
The board meets every day from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. and prepares an updated report of the former prime minister’s health. This morning, Dr. Adnan Khan, the personal physician of Nawaz Sharif, who is also part of the medical board, raised alarm when he tweeted that the 69-year-old Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz leader was “critically unwell, is fighting the battle for his health and life.”