Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley’s doctors have given him the all clear for duty but have also recommended he increase his level of exercise and pay careful attention to his diet.
“I’m not a ‘young boy’ (as somebody said) but as Sparrow says, you’re as old as you feel and I feel well at this point in time,” Rowley added at yesterday’s post-Cabinet media briefing as he reported back following his two-week trip to California for a heart check-up.
Prior to departure, Rowley said, plaque which was found in an artery in 2016 had gotten bigger. His local doctor on February 18 told him to deal with the issue immediately. In California, Rowley underwent three sets of tests which found he didn’t require surgery. He returned Tuesday.
Yesterday, Rowley said the “certain alarms” identified by his medical caregivers—prior to the trip—which required “urgent, detailed attention” had raised a number of concerns for himself, his family and “many thousands” who’d also expressed concern.
He said he went to his doctors of long standing in California, where he underwent “...very, very detailed and rigorous examinations using very experienced personnel and leading-edge technologies, some available in T&T, some not.”
“But I was much more comfortable in that very difficult situation, dealing with the doctors who’d known me for years. Thankfully, at the end of it all, no major alarms requiring any intervention was the outcome of those proceedings,” Rowley said
Apart from diet and exercise, he was also told to ensure he continues whatever medication he’s been taking.
“And there’s no need for any alarm. At this stage, I’m to be revisited sometime next year,” he said.
He thanked well-wishers, supporters and “the congregations who sought divine intervention” for him during his check-up.
Speaking in low tones, Rowley also expressed shock at the death of religious leader Maulana Mustaq Ahmed Sulaimani, former head of the San Fernando Jama Masjid which Rowley had attended last Eid. Rowley said Sulaimani was, in his estimation, a model citizen. He said Sulaimani recently told him he’d been diagnosed with an ailment and was going to seek further specialist treatment in homeland Pakistan. But news of his death arrived yesterday.
“It only reminds us of how temporary we are....matters not how powerful or destructive we feel,” Rowley added. -