PM shifted out of ICU at AIIMS

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who is making a "speedy recovery" after a successful coronary by-pass surgery, was on Wednesday shifted out of the intensive care unit at AIIMS.

Singh, 76, "was moved out of the ICU this morning. All his monitoring devices have been removed and he has been shifted to an adjacent room," AIIMS sources said.

The decision to shift the Prime Minister out of the ICU was taken by a team of doctors which included his personal physician Dr K S Reddy and repeat by-pass surgeon Dr Ramakant Panda from Mumbai's Asian Heart Institute (AHI).

Dr Vijay D'Silva, an ICU specialist also from AHI and attending on the Prime Minister, said, "His is a speedy recovery in the expected time frame".

Meanwhile, President Pratibha Patil visited AIIMS and spent nearly 20 minutes with the Prime Minister's family.

Singh, who underwent the over 11-hour-long operation on Saturday last, had walked in his room yesterday and was put on a normal diet.

The Prime Minister's media advisor Deepak Sandhu yesterday said that Singh has been making progress steadily in the post-operative period and was being supported by a team of cardiac rehabilitation and physio-therapy experts at the AIIMS.