Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif has been diagnosed with acute immune thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP), a bleeding disorder in which the immune system destroys platelets, which are necessary for normal blood clotting, according to medics.
“The blood disorder is easily treatable in Pakistan,” a doctor on the medical board treating the incarcerated politician at Lahore’s Services Hospital said. “Nawaz Sharif has been put on IVIG,” he said, adding that he would recover in a week’s time. IVIg, or intravenous immunoglobulin, is a treatment that combines immunoglobulin donated by different people and is given by a drip.
“He [Nawaz] does not have aplastic anaemia and his haemoglobin and WBC (white blood cells) count are normal. Platelets are low, though,” said the doctor, who is privy to the former premier’s treatment and health issues.
The doctor added that Nawaz’s bone marrow was functioning normally and was making healthy blood cells as it should in addition to a normal level of reticulocytes.
According to the website of Mayo Clinic, a not-for-profit organization, ITP is a disorder that can lead to excessive or easy bruising and bleeding from unusually low levels of platelets in the blood. The disorder can cause purple bruises as well as tiny reddish-purple dots that look like a rash. In adults, the disorder is usually long term, while children can recover fully without treatment.
The PML-N supremo was shifted to Services Hospital from the office of NAB on the night of October 21 after a drop in his platelet count. He received transfusions of mega units of platelets at the hospital the next day. And subsequently, government officials, as well as PML-N politicians confirmed that his condition had stabilised.
However, his condition worsened Wednesday evening after his platelets count again dropped sharply to critical levels of 7,000 per microliter. Normal counts are in the range of 150,000 to 400,000 per microliter. Punjab Health Minister Dr Yasmin Rashid had also met the former premier at the hospital and claimed at a news conference that “Nawaz was satisfied with the treatment”.
“We have informed him [Nawaz] about his condition and told him that we can arrange any doctor that he wants to treat him,” she added. “Even his personal physician is satisfied by the steps we have taken.” She said that if the Sharif family wanted, any overseas doctor could be flown in to treat Nawaz. “The plane is ready-if the Sharif family wishes to fly in any doctor from overseas, it can be arranged,” she said.
Meanwhile, Maryam Nawaz, daughter of the former prime minister, was also rushed to the Services Hospital from Kot Lakhpat Jail on Wednesday, where she met her ailing father.
Earlier, Maryam was denied permission by a court to see her father. However, she was allowed to visit her father on the special permission of the federal government. She was hospitalised at the VVIP-1room adjacent to the room of her father.
Meanwhile, the PML-N spokesperson claimed that Maryam Nawaz was sent back to Kot Lakhpat jail early on Thursday morning, hours after she was hospitalised.
Condemning the move, PML-N spokesperson Marriyum Aurangzeb said that Maryam was sent back to the jail at 5am, adding that the PML-N vice president was unwell at the time when she was sent to Kot Lakhpat jail. “After an hour-long meeting between the father and the daughter, the hospital administration offered her check-up at the hospital because she had not been feeling well for the last few days,” a source had said.
The sources said Maryam had accepted the administration’s offer to be admitted to the hospital. Doctors conducted her blood tests late at night and her treatment was to begin in the light of the test results.
Marriyum Aurangzeb said the party vice president was experiencing high blood pressure and her heart rate was not normal at the time when she was returned to jail. She said that doctors had decided to admit her in the hospital after conducting tests. Additionally, she alleged that Maryam’s medical reports were not being provided to her children and her personal physician, Dr Khan. She said that taking Maryam to jail in this way was another attempt to bring mental agony to former prime minister Nawaz Sharif.
Meanwhile, PML-N leader Ataullah Tarar revealed that Nawaz’s platelet count had again dropped to 6,000. He said that Shehbaz and the Sharif family had requested the nation to pray for the former prime minister’s recovery.
It may be mentioned here that medical superintendent of the Services Hospital will appear before the Islamabad High Court (IHC) today to present Nawaz’s medical report.
A hearing was held on Shehbaz’s request to suspend Nawaz’s sentence in the Al Azizia Steel Mills case and allow the former prime minister to travel abroad for medical treatment. Nawaz’s lawyer Khawaja Haris said that his client’s health condition had worsened. He said it was a miracle that Nawaz had survived even with such a low count of platelets. Shehbaz filed a petition at the Lahore High Court (LHC) to free Nawaz in the Chaudhry Sugar Mills case. A bail petition for Maryam has also been filed in the same case.