PM makes excellent progress: Doctors, everything as per "plan"

New Delhi, Jan 26 (PTI) Two days after he successfully
underwent a coronary by-pass surgery, Indian Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh was tonight making "steady and excellent
progress" and several invasive monitoring lines removed with
doctors saying everything is going as per "treatment plan."

The 76-year-old Prime Minister, who was put on
semi-solid diet for the first time Monday after his surgery on
Saturday, will be taken out of the Intensive Care Unit(ICU)
of All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) by
Wednesday, Dr Ramakant Panda, a specialist of Mumbai's Asian
Heart Institute, who led the team of doctors during the
11-hour surgery, told PTI.

United Progressive Alliance (UPA) chairperson and
Congress President Sonia Gandhi visited Singh at the AIIMS and
wished him well.

Gandhi also enquired about the Prime Minister's progress
and was in the hospital for 15 minutes, Sandhu said.

The prime minister "continues to make steady and
excellent progress in his recovery following the heart
surgery. He sat up this morning and had semi-solid food," PM's
Media Adviser Deepak Sandhu said.

Noting that several of his 'invasive monitoring lines'
have been removed, she said Singh was undergoing physiotherapy
to enable early mobilisation.

"The Prime Minister was conversing with family members
and the doctors attending to him," Sandhu said, adding that he
was eager to resume work as soon as possible.

Dr Vijay D'Silva, who is taking care of Singh at the
ICU, said the Prime Minister was "recovering well and his
vital parameters are stable."

Dr Panda said the prime minister is "responding very
well to the treatment...Everything is going as per treatment
plan. The Prime Minister will be taken out of ICU by
Wednesday." Doctors said the date of discharge has not yet
been decided. PTI