 "CM Jaya speaks using tracheostomy tube valve: Apollo chairman")
While speaking to reporters during an organ donation awareness programme organised by the hospital, he said that the Chief Minister can speak using a speaker for a few minutes.
While it would need the training to use the speaker for a longer time, the hospital is not training her since it is a temporary arrangement. Almost 90% of the time she is breathing on her own.
It may be noted that she has undergone a tracheostomy, a process in which a tube is inserted into the windpipe through an opening in the neck, to enable breathing.
"Next thing is for her to stand up and walk and then she can go home," he said. Pre-empting a question that when it would happen, added, "I have told you, she is a very strong Chief Minister, she has got a very strong mind and she will tell you, not me."
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Jayalalithaa is currently going through a whole body physiotherapy, both active and passive and all her organs are functioning reasonably well. With the improvement, the doctors decided to shift her to a normal ward where she will feel much happier, he added.
The 68-year old Jayalalithaa has been admitted to the hospital on September 22, and the hospital said that she was suffering from fever and dehydration. Later, the hospital said that the experts are continuing a treatment for infection and is taking expert opinion from Richard Beale, a specialist and consultant from the Guy's and St Thomas' Hospital, London, who was flown in from the UK.
A three-member team from All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS) — pulmonologist G C Khilnani, cardiologist Nitish Naik and anaesthetist and critical care expert Anjan Trikha — were also flown in as part of treatment to the Chief Minister.
The portfolio she has been handling as a Chief Minister was reallocated to O Panneerselvam, the state finance minister, till Jayalalithaa resumes back the office.