The main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party chairperson Khaleda Zia聽聽 was admitted to Evercare Hospital in the capital early Saturday after she had suddenly fallen ill.
鈥楽he [Khaleda Zia] was rushed to hospital on doctors鈥� advice,鈥� said Khaleda鈥檚 personal physician AZM Zahid Hossain.
He said that the BNP chief was taken to the hospital by ambulance about 3:05am.
Later, she was admitted to the coronary care unit at 3:30am.
BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir went to the hospital about 3:30am and told reporters after emerging from there that Khaleda Zia鈥檚 condition was critical.
Khaleda last went to Evercare Hospital on May 1 for a health check-up when doctors treated her at the CCU for two days.
The former prime minister, aged 79, has long battled various ailments, including liver cirrhosis, arthritis, diabetes, and issues related to the kidney, lung, heart, and eyes.
Since her conditional release from prison in 2020, the BNP chief has been receiving medical care at the hospital under the supervision of a medical board headed by cardiologist Professor Shahabuddin Talukder.
Khaleda鈥檚 doctors have been advising to send her abroad since she was diagnosed with liver cirrhosis in November 2021.
On October 26 last year, three US specialist doctors completed a hepatic procedure known as transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt (TIPS procedure) to stop water accumulation in Khaleda鈥檚 stomach and chest, and bleeding in her liver.
Khaleda was sent to the old Dhaka jail after a lower court had sentenced her to five years imprisonment in the Zia Orphanage Trust corruption case on February 8, 2018. Later in the same year, she was found guilty in another corruption case.
Amid the Coronavirus outbreak, the government temporarily freed Khaleda Zia from jail through an executive order suspending her sentence on March 25, 2020, with the condition that she stay in her Gulshan house and not leave the country. That has since been extended multiple times to keep her out of jail.