Suharto resuscitated when his heart stops after organ failure
Happier days: Former Indonesian president Suharto shows his finger marked with ink after he voted in a polling station near his residence in central Jakarta on September 20, 2004. Picture: Reuters File
Saturday, January 12, 2008
INDONESIA'S health minister said yesterday that doctors had revived former president Suharto when his heart had stopped beating shortly after he suffered from multiple organ failure.
The minister, Siti Fadilah Supari, told ElShinta radio that at around 6pm (7pm, Brunei time), she was "told that there was a resuscitation conducted on Suharto. A resuscitation is undertaken when the heart no longer beats...
"I was called again and told that the resuscitation had produced a response, and then I was called again and asked whether it was necessary to link him to a ventilator," she said, adding that she told the doctors to decide what to do.
"According to me, at an age like that, and if things are forced and no recovery can be reached... it would be better to leave him in peace, to allow him to return to face God in peace," she added.
Suharto, an authoritarian ruler for 32 years until he was forced from power in 1998, entered hospital a week ago suffering anaemia and low blood pressure, as well as heart, kidney and lung problems.
The 86-year-old has been in and out of hospital in the past few years.
He suffered multiple organ failure and lost consciousness at around 5pm.
Supari said that a ventilator was not a guarantee that he would recover and could cause him to suffer and she was "rather shocked" when told he had been hooked to the machine.
"The installation of a ventilator can result in false life... The patient can breathe because of a breathing machine, the kidney of the patient still functions because of a kidney machine, his heart continues to be made to beat by medicines... The patient looks as if alive," she said.
"This is what I regret, it is a pity," she said.
All six of Suharto's children were at Pertamina hospital in Jakarta, where he has been treated since January 4, along with his extended family.
Vice President Yusuf Kalla arrived at the hospital along with relatives from Suharto's extended family. Kalla comforted one of Suharto's weeping daughters outside his hospital room, according to one of the vice president's staff members.
She had told him that the family had been ready to "let him go" after he lost consciousness, but he had shown some signs of life several hours later. Kalla later left without making comments to the press.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is currently in Malaysia on an official visit. A reporter from Elshinta radio station travelling with him said journalists had been told to wait at the hotel because "there is a possibility that the president will return to Jakarta later the same day".
Suharto was in power during an era of massive growth that reshaped what was an economically backwards archipelago. But he was eventually undone by corruption and rights abuses of his rule, in the aftermath of the 1997 Asian economic crisis.
A criminal corruption case against the former president was dropped in 2006 on health grounds, but a US$1.4 billion civil case into alleged graft involving a national charity that he chaired is ongoing.
AFP
The minister, Siti Fadilah Supari, told ElShinta radio that at around 6pm (7pm, Brunei time), she was "told that there was a resuscitation conducted on Suharto. A resuscitation is undertaken when the heart no longer beats...
"I was called again and told that the resuscitation had produced a response, and then I was called again and asked whether it was necessary to link him to a ventilator," she said, adding that she told the doctors to decide what to do.
"According to me, at an age like that, and if things are forced and no recovery can be reached... it would be better to leave him in peace, to allow him to return to face God in peace," she added.
Suharto, an authoritarian ruler for 32 years until he was forced from power in 1998, entered hospital a week ago suffering anaemia and low blood pressure, as well as heart, kidney and lung problems.
The 86-year-old has been in and out of hospital in the past few years.
He suffered multiple organ failure and lost consciousness at around 5pm.
Supari said that a ventilator was not a guarantee that he would recover and could cause him to suffer and she was "rather shocked" when told he had been hooked to the machine.
"The installation of a ventilator can result in false life... The patient can breathe because of a breathing machine, the kidney of the patient still functions because of a kidney machine, his heart continues to be made to beat by medicines... The patient looks as if alive," she said.
"This is what I regret, it is a pity," she said.
All six of Suharto's children were at Pertamina hospital in Jakarta, where he has been treated since January 4, along with his extended family.
Vice President Yusuf Kalla arrived at the hospital along with relatives from Suharto's extended family. Kalla comforted one of Suharto's weeping daughters outside his hospital room, according to one of the vice president's staff members.
She had told him that the family had been ready to "let him go" after he lost consciousness, but he had shown some signs of life several hours later. Kalla later left without making comments to the press.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is currently in Malaysia on an official visit. A reporter from Elshinta radio station travelling with him said journalists had been told to wait at the hotel because "there is a possibility that the president will return to Jakarta later the same day".
Suharto was in power during an era of massive growth that reshaped what was an economically backwards archipelago. But he was eventually undone by corruption and rights abuses of his rule, in the aftermath of the 1997 Asian economic crisis.
A criminal corruption case against the former president was dropped in 2006 on health grounds, but a US$1.4 billion civil case into alleged graft involving a national charity that he chaired is ongoing.
AFP
Business Besides Oil
