LONDON: Former finance minister Ishaq Dar was admitted to the London Bridge Hospital for the treatment of his chronic neck and lower back pain. Dar is being given steroid injections into his cervical spine in the form of nerve root block and facet joint steroid injections, hospital sources said. The former minister had been having chronic progressive neck pain radiating to the arm for which he was referred by his cardiac surgeon to a consultant spinal neurosurgeon at the London Spinal Centre, it was learnt. A report by the doctor issued on December 21, 2017, confirmed that Dar suffered multi-level disc herniation and neural foraminal stenosis in the cervical spine particularly at C3/4, C5/6 and C6/7. The report also said that Dar’s symptoms have worsened, rating him it as “9/10 on the VAS” with disc protrusion at the L4/5 level. The former minister came to London on October 29, 2017, after complaining of chest heaviness and shortness of breath while performing Umrah in Saudi Arabia a day earlier. In London, his coronary angiography was initially undertaken. Subsequently, Transthoracic Echocardiogram and a Dobutamine Stress Echocardiogram were done among other tests and it was established that he had issues with one of the coronary vessels, which for the time being is being treated with strong medication to avoid surgical intervention.
Published in Daily Times, January 14th 2018.
