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JAKARTA: Indonesia’s former dictator Suharto is improving in
hospital with medics training him to talk and reclaim control of his
muscles again ahead of a possible return home, doctors said Sunday.
The ex-president has been in hospital for 17
days with severe heart, lung and kidney problems and suffered
multiple organ failure before showing solid signs of recovery in
recent days.
“The general condition shows improvement, his
level of consciousness is good, Mardjo Sioebiandono, who heads
the team of doctors, told a press briefing here.
Suharto, 86, is now partly breathing on his own
after the tube from the ventilator was removed from his mouth on
Saturday and put through an incision in his neck instead, he said.
The former dictator’s heart and lungs are also
improving and signs of systemic infection are under control,”
Sioebiandono said, with medics working to overcome infections and
provide exercises to restore muscle activity.
The ex-president, who ruled Indo-nesia for more
than three decades, was first admitted to hospital on January 4.
He was connected to a ventilator a week later
when he suffered multiple organ failure but has since got better.
“This morning, his consciousness is very
good,” said another doctor sitting on the team, Jusuf Misbach.
“He can follow orders and even tried to speak
even though his voice is still weak. His consciousness has
under-gone a rapid improvement.”
“[He] looks fresher… we are all feeling a
relief because in the last few days, the progress of his health has
improved,” said former state secretary Moerdiono, now an acting
spokesman for Suharto’s family.
Late on Saturday evening, Djoko Rahardjo, the
head of the Pertamina hospital where Suharto is being treated said
that the patient may soon be allowed to move out of the hospital’s
intensive care unit.
“In a few days,” he said when asked by
journalists when Suharto could leave.
Meanwhile, several groups, including an
inter-religion organization and another led by Vice-President
Jusuf Kalla, held joint prayers on Sunday for Suharto’s health.
Suharto, who was among Asia’s most notorious
strongmen of the 20th century, stepped down in 1998 amid deadly
riots and mass prodemocracy protests that were sparked by the 1997
Asian economic crisis.
-- AFP
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