Reject national parties: Owaisi tells Dalits, Muslims, Adivasis

Ballari, July 26: Karnataka's minister for forests and environment Anand Singh has tested positive for COVID-19 and is in quarantine at his residence in Hospet town of Ballari district.

Minister's son-in-law Sandeep Singh confirmed it and said he has been home-quarantined and the doctors are treating him at home. It is not known who have contracted the virus from him, he told.  

A few days back, the car driver of the minister had tested positive for Covid-19. Old house of the minister located at Ranipet here was sealed down and he was quarantined at his bungalow off the ring road. 

A week ago, the minister held a meeting which was attended by doctors, hotel owners, the officials and journalists. Hence, they have been advised to undergo Covid-19 test, said a Government hospital doctor.

Bengaluru, Jan 21: A private hospital in Bengaluru, the capital of Karnataka, on Tuesday claimed that it has successfully performed a live liver transplant on a Jehovah's Witness from Nigeria, by not using blood or blood products, in order to protect the patient's religious beliefs.

It is said that Jehovah's Witnesses are followers of a Christian faith that prohibits the use of blood or blood products during their treatment. Gehojadak (37), a Jehovah's Witness follower, had developed decompensated liver disease and visited more than three countries seeking treatment over the last four years but was turned away by most doctors due to the highly risky nature of surgery, Aster CMI Hospital said.

The surgery was challenging compared to a normal liver transplant because in order to protect the patient's religious beliefs, the medical team could not use blood or blood products (Fresh frozen plasma, Cryoprecipitate, Platelets etc), it said in a release, adding that very few such surgeries have been successfully conducted worldwide.

The patient's brother was the donor, the hospital said, adding, without a liver transplant, Gehojadak's chances of survival were less than 10 per cent over the next two years. A team of liver specialists from the Hospital thoroughly reviewed the patient's medical history before recommending a bloodless liver transplant and charted out a feasible pathway to make the surgery a success.

"This transplant was especially challenging as we did not have the safety net (of using blood) even if the patient's life was at risk due to their advance directive. We have performed other non-transplant liver surgeries in Jehovah's Witnesses and this gave us the confidence to take on Gehojadak's transplant," Dr Rajiv Lochan, Consultant Liver Transplant Surgeon, said.

The critical surgery took a 12-hour period to complete where two teams of specialists with close to 25 doctors including anaesthetists, intensivists worked in absolute sync with each other and Gehojadak finally received a life-saving liver transplant, the Hospital said. In a period of two weeks, the patient and his brother were fit enough to go home and were discharged from the hospital.

"Even if their haemoglobin levels dropped to life-threatening levels, the patients were clear that they would not accept a blood transfusion. Keeping the limitations in mind, the most effective treatment path was planned, and we spent close to two months preparing the patients for surgery," Arun V, Consultant Anesthesiologist said. The hospital arranged customised artificial products like synthetic drug molecules, to conduct a bloodless liver transplant, he added.

Bengaluru, Feb 22: The Hindu Mahasabha has decided to carry out a 'cleaning ceremony' by using 'gau-mutra' (cow urine) to purify Freedom Park, where pro-Pakistan slogans were shouted as a protest against the CAA, NRC and NRP.

On Thursday, an 18-year-old girl Amulya Leona hadraised slogans of 'Pakistan Zindabad,' after the organisers of the event under the banner of 'Save Constitution' invited her to address the gathering. AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi soon rushed and tried to snatch away mic from her hand.

Amulya, who was arrested by the police soon after the event on charges of Sedition, was remanded to 14-day judicial custody.

Associates of Amulya insisted that she was trying to make a point that nobody in the anti-CAA rallies would hail a ‘long Live Pakistan’ slogan while they would do so for a ‘Long Live Hindustan’ chant.

“She is not dumb. She knew exactly what she was saying. She had a clear narrative in mind, but was interrupted before she could complete it. Her half-comments are now being taken out of context,” said Sujnan, another student-activist. 

“In the end, the campaign is not involved with whatever she said or intended to say. It falls on her to explain herself,” said a protest organiser.