In new information on the 74-day hospitalisation of former Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, Tamil Nadu Health Secretary J Radhakrishnan told media persons on Thursday that the late leader did not wish to travel abroad for treatment.

Speaking to the media after deposing before the one-man probe panel investigating the hospitalisation and death of former Chief Minister Jayalalithaa, he said, “As far as I know, after she regained consciousness, she did not wish to go abroad. Then in the end there was an unexpected heart attack on the 4th. The Commission has asked details on all this, including the veracity of these details. As far as we know, we have given the details.”

However, the Health Secretary also said that the government had mulled taking the late Chief Minister for treatment abroad, before she had gained consciousness and was on the ventilator.

He said, “As far as going abroad is concerned, it was discussed after she was put on ventilator and doctors from AIIMS arrived in the first week of October.”

Explaining the reasons provided by the doctors for not taking her abroad at the time, Radhakrishnan said that Jayalalithaa's case was different from that of her mentor and former Chief Minister MG Ramachandran, who was flown to the US for treatment.

“When late MGR was around, his personal physician recommended that he go abroad. Such issues didn't arise in this case. If you watch Dr Richard Beale’s interview, (he says) in the balance between taking her abroad and keeping her here, there is nothing in Tamil Nadu or Apollo that is not there abroad. Not just that, at that time there was high risk for shifting, that's why when she was unconscious, no decision was taken on that.,” he said.

A bureaucrat who had worked closely with Jayalalithaa for years had earlier told TNM that for decades Jayalalithaa had refused to travel outside the country as per advise given by her astrologer.

When asked about Jayalalithaa's family physician Dr Sivakumar's wish to perform an angiogram, Radhakrishnan clarified saying that doctors from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi had recommended against an intervention.

“AIIMS doctors have given in writing that any interventional procedure not required, not advised. The treating doctors take the final call,” he added.