Air ambulance for Khaleda Zia arriving tomorrow morning
The air ambulance hired to take Bangladesh nationalist Party (BNP) Chairperson Khaleda Zia to London for medical treatment has been granted permission to land at Dhaka’s Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport tomorrow, Tuesday morning.
Executive director of Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport, group captain SM Ragib Samad, confirmed the information to Prothom Alo this morning, Monday.
However, whether Khaleda Zia will be able to travel to London depends entirely on her physical condition. Her personal physician, AZM Zahid Hossain, also said last Saturday that her ability to travel abroad hinged on her current medical state.
SM Ragib Samad said that the air ambulance belongs to the Germany-based FAI Aviation Group. It is scheduled to land at Shahjalal Airport tomorrow at 8:20 am. If required, it may depart Dhaka the same day at 9:00 pm.
Meanwhile, sources at the Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (CAAB) said that the application submitted last Saturday by FAI Aviation sought permission to land in Dhaka on Tuesday and to depart for London on Wednesday.
Khaleda Zia has been undergoing treatment at Evercare Hospital in Dhaka for more than two weeks now.
A source involved in decisions regarding Khaleda Zia’s treatment and travel abroad said Sunday night, that physicians have decided to delay her potential transfer abroad by another two days after reviewing her latest condition.
This decision, taken considering the risks of long-distance travel, now depends entirely on how her condition changes in the next 24 to 48 hours. According to the information available up to last night, there has been no significant improvement or deterioration in her condition; things remain largely unchanged.
A close source from the medical board formed to oversee Khaleda Zia’s treatment said that although her diabetes, kidney, cardiac, and lung complications remain controlled at times, they are also becoming suddenly unstable.
For this reason, her overall condition cannot be described as stable. The latest tests have shown some improvement in her kidney and lung function. However, these improvements are not sufficient to reduce the overall risk and the physicians say she is still not out of danger.
Because of this uncertainty, the possible date of Khaleda Zia’s departure abroad keeps changing repeatedly. Initially, the BNP had announced that she would be flown to London early on Friday (5 December).
Later on Friday morning, a new date of 7 December was provided. That night, the BNP announced that the date had again been pushed back again, with 9 December set as the new tentative travel date.