Dr Mahathir Operated On At 9.30am
Says His Special Officer

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 4 (Bernama) -- Former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad underwent his second coronary bypass surgery at the National Heart Institute (IJN) here at 9.30am today.

The operation by a team headed by his former cardiac surgeon, Tan Sri Dr Yahya Awang, is expected to take four to six hours, his special officer Sufi Yusoff told Bernama.

He said Dr Mahathir was wheeled into the operating theatre at 9am.Dr Mahathir, 81, underwent a coronary bypass operation at the Kuala Lumpur General Hospital on Jan 24, 1989 following a heart attack.

Meanwhile, his daughter Marina in her blog, "RantingsbyMM", said the operation team would be assisted by Dr Hartzell Schaff, chief cardiac surgeon at the Mayo Clinic in the US."Dr Schaff has operated several times with Tan Sri Yahya at IJN before," said Marina.

She said that in December 2005, Dr Mahathir had a check-up by the IJN team led by its medical director, Datuk Seri Dr Robaayah Zambahari, who is currently heading the panel of doctors attending to Dr Mahathir, and the decision then was that he did not need surgery again."

However, after three episodes in fairly quick succession since, this decision was relooked at. Hence two weeks ago, he went in for some tests and an angiogram to determine the next course of action after which this decision to redo the bypass was made."

At 82 (Dr Mahathir will turn 82 on Dec 20), he is probably the oldest person to have a redo in Malaysia although Dr Schaff has done plenty in the US," she said.

Dr Mahathir, who retired in October 2003 after 22 years in office, was admitted to IJN on Aug 18 for a routine check-up and underwent comprehensive cardiac tests. He was discharged two days later.

On May 14, he was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit of the Langkawi Hospital after complaining of breathing difficulty and was flown to Kuala Lumpur for further treatment at IJN the following day.

Five days later, he was transferred out of IJN's Coronary Care Unit (CCU) to the Bunga Raya ward and discharged on May 24.On Feb 11, Dr Mahathir was admitted to IJN for a day after a bout of flu.

The former prime minister was admitted to the institute for mild myocardial infarction (mild heart attack) on Nov 9 2006 and discharged on Nov 14.In 1999, Dr Mahathir was admitted to IJN to rest and undergo full treatment for a lung infection which he suffered after returning from performing the haj.-- BERNAMA