FORMER Prime Minister Patrick Manning is expected to be airlifted out of this country sometime over the next few days to seek medical attention in the United States, informed sources told the Mirror.
Manning was admitted to the San Fernando General Hospital last week Monday (January 23) after suffering a cerebral embolism (stroke).
While both his wife, Hazel, and medical reports indicate that the former leader of the People’s National Movement (PNM) was expected to make a full recovery, and that he had regained some of his functions, his speech is still said to be heavily slurred and his right arm is weak, although he has regained some function in his right leg. The former Prime Minister is now said to be able to take care of himself but requires assistance to walk.
Mirror learnt that the Mannings had approached the government to assist in getting the kind of specialist treatment that the former Prime Minister needs if he is to make a full recovery. The cost of the overseas medical treatment is reported to be in the vicinity of US$50,000 and was approved at Thursday’s Cabinet meeting.
Mirror has also learnt that he is expected to be accompanied by his wife, Hazel, a former Minister of Education under his administration.
According to reports, the stricken politician needs assistance from specialised speech therapists and physiotherapists, experienced with working with stroke patients. While Manning has generally received medical attention in Cuba, the US is now preferred given his need for a English-speaking speech therapist which would not be available in Spanish-speaking Cuba.
Meanwhile, Mirror learnt that the Manning family is insisting that PNM Political Leader Dr. Keith Rowley was not denied the opportunity to speak with the wife of former Prime Minister, when he visited the San Fernando General last week, but simply left too early.
Attorneys representing the Mannings contacted the TnT Mirror last week, taking issue with the last Weekend Mirror report headlined ‘Hazel disses Rowley’, which related the PNM leader’s failure to visit his predecessor, who was at the time at the hospital after suffering a mild stroke.
The representatives for the Mannings stated that Mrs. Manning was called into her husband’s hospital room by his doctors just as Rowley arrived on the ward. The doctors were said to be attempting to gauge Patrick Manning’s responsiveness to members of his family as opposed to the doctors with whom he had been interacting up to that time.
Hazel Manning, the source said, had gestured to Rowley that he should wait before going into the room but when she returned less than an hour later, she found that he had already left the hospital.
The Mannings, according to their attorneys, also wished to deny reports that the former Prime Minister had been visited by his former Cabinet ministers including Gary Hunt, Mustapha Abdul-Hamid, Amery Browne and Christine Kangaloo.
The only visitors allowed to see Patrick Manning outside of his immediate family last week were former Prime Minister Basdeo Panday accompanied by his daughter Mikela and St. Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Ralph Gonzalves, who was escorted to the room by Hunt.
