TUMAKURU: Siddaganga Mutt seer Shivakumara Swami (111) will be shifted to Chennai for treatment. The junior pontiff of the mutt, Sri Siddalinga Swami, told reporters that the seer will be airlifted from Bengaluru’s Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) at 10.30 am on Friday for a full-fledged treatment to ensure that he gets cured completely.
Dr L N Kumar, an anesthetist from Chennai, visited the mutt along with Dr Ravindra B S, the chief of Medical Gastroenterology of BGS Gleneagles Global Hospitals in Kengeri, and reviewed the seer’s health condition before returning on Thursday night. Dr Ravindra said that since the seer has undergone stenting six times and gets infected, the doctors at Chennai will go for a surgery to find a permanent cure.
Earlier in the day, a team of doctors, including Siddaganga Hospital and Research Centre’s director Dr Parameshwarappa, and mutt authorities, including the junior pontiff, held long deliberations about shifting the pontiff to Dr Rela Insitute and Medical Centre at Chromepet in Chennai.
The doctors consulted Dr Mohamed Rela, an expert in liver transplantation at Chennai, who agreed to examine the ailing pontiff. Sources said Dr Rela had in the past visited the mutt and sought the seer’s blessings. “The seer had his normal food and is responding to the treatment,” a source in the mutt said.
Deputy Chief Minister G Parameshwara, who called on the seer earlier in the day, said that the government is prepared to take all steps.
On Saturday, the seer had complained of fever, after which he was shifted to BGS Hospitals, where it was found that three out of nine stents placed had dropped. Two more stents were placed during a one-and-a-half hour procedure under anesthesia.He was discharged on Monday.But as fever recurred on Wednesday night, doctors visited the mutt and administered treatment and stabilised his condition.
DyCM visits mutt, meets seer
Deputy Chief Minister and senior Congress leader G Parameshwara, who was on a scheduled visit to Tumakuru, paid a visit to the mutt and exchanged pleasantries with the seer on Thursday morning.
“The seer asked about my health and suggested me to have breakfast in the mutt,” he said.