KARACHI: Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) MNA Fauzia Wahab has gone into a coma after remaining in critical condition at an intensive care unit of a private hospital, The Express Tribune learnt from her son Murtaza Wahab on Sunday.
Her condition deteriorated on Saturday night owing to the complications after her primary gall bladder surgery. Two more surgeries were performed in order to control her internal bleeding and other complications. She has been admitted to the Orthopedic Medical Institute (OMI) for the past 23 days, Murtaza said.
A physician treating her said on condition on anonymity that she had a brain stem infarction, a type of stroke that occurs when blood cannot flow into the brain vessels. She underwent a Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) last night.
The brainstem is mainly responsible for allowing speech, hearing and swallowing. It also controls breathing, heartbeat, blood pressure, balance and eye movements.
According to the physician, she was gaining and losing consciousness and was having serious breathing problems. Her internal bleeding had worsened the situation. She has even had a tracheostomy, an operation in which the neck is incised, making an opening in the windpipe in order to allow direct access to the breathing tube.
However, it was difficult to maintain her respiration as oxygen was not reaching her brain. Doctors say that brain stem infarction is a very serious condition with a very few cases of revival known.
A student of International Relations from the University of Karachi, Wahab made her way into politics as a student leader and by campaigning for human rights. She has held many key positions in the PPP and was a close aide of the slain leader of the party, Benazir Bhutto.
Murtaza Wahab, and Wahabs other family members and workers and leadership of the PPP have requested the whole nation to pray for her health.
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