(Trinidad Express) A smiling Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar exited the St Clair Medical Centre yesterday after her 48-hour stay, but admitted to being “scared” after her blood pressure dropped suddenly and left her feeling “weak”.
Persad-Bissessar, 59, underwent a battery of tests during her stay at the hospital and though she said most of them were completed on the first day, a “bad reaction” to an injected dye for the CT scan caused her blood pressure to drop and her medical team decided to keep her for another day.
“It was a very scary thing, I must say, when I reacted badly to the dye and they felt it best to keep me,” Persad-Bissessar said. She was speaking to reporters shortly after being discharged from the hospital at 9. a.m yesterday.
She said though the major battery of tests were performed on Wednesday and the doctors had everything “under control and balanced”, the negative effect of the dye left her weaker than when she was admitted to the hospital.
Persad-Bissessar said since she was both diabetic and hypertensive the doctors felt it best to “tweak” her medication.
“People my age should have check ups every year and I have not had one in quite a while,” she admitted. She said the CT scan was part of the slate of tests done as part of the “executive medical check-up”. Persad-Bissessar said she was told to have a quiet week but noted her schedule was already heating up.
“A major matter is budget day, which is October 10 at 1.30 p.m in Parliament. Other matters are still being reviewed such as matters to do with the State of Emergency and the curfew,” she said.
Persad-Bissessar said the Government was still reviewing whether they would lift the curfew or continue with it.
“Those are the things next week we would give consideration to as we review day by day,” she said.
“I was told to take it quietly next week, but I am fine,” she said.
On Wednesday, the Prime Minister complained of feeling unwell at a public function. Both ankles were swollen.
Education Minister Dr Tim Gopeesingh said the Prime Minister had been reaching for something on her shelves when two cans fell on her feet about a week before.
But yesterday Health Minister Dr Fuad Khan told the Express in a telephone interview that the Prime Minister said the swelling of her feet had decreased and even said that women suffer from this problem—venous pooling, after standing for long periods of time.
Khan said approximately 10-15 per cent of all patients have negative reactions to the dye injections for CT scans. Khan said a reaction to the dye is so common that doctors are always medically prepared to deal with those cases.
Khan said the Prime Minister’s medical ailments diabetes and hypertension were not the reason for the injected dye, but said it was more likely a part of her overall medical check-up.
“The question of the dye injection is really based on what the doctors were looking for,” he said.
“It outlines where the blood is flowing so the dye could have been to achieve a complete analysis,” Khan said.
