Kerdau assemblyman in critical condition

Kerdau state assemblyman Datuk Zaharuddin Abu Kassim who slipped into a coma this morning was transferred back to the Coronary Care Unit (CCU) of the National Heart Institute (IJN) in critical condition.

According to Kuala Krau Member of Parliament Datuk Ismail Mohamed Said, Zaharuddin, 63, was admitted to the IJN on May 9, following complications after an operation for ulcer in the intestine at the Sultan Haji Ahmad Shah Hospital in Temerloh, Pahang.

He was transferred to a normal ward last Wednesday but when a nurse tried to wake him up at 6am today, he did not respond.

“I was told by one of his children that he was unconscious when a nurse tried to wake him up to give medicine. I was made to understand that he might have suffered a stroke,” he told Bernama here today.

Ismail said doctors had asked Zaharuddin’s family members to come to IJN because his lungs and heart had weakened while he remained in a coma.

The Kerdau assemblyman had stood under the Umno banner during the 2008 general election and won the seat after polling 4,135 votes to beat PAS candidate Hassanudin Salim by a 1,615-vote majority.

The constituency comprises 89 per cent Malays, 6 per cent Chinese, 3.7 per cent Indians and 2.5 per cent others.

Zaharudin’s condition had sparked rumour early last month about an impending by-election. — Bernama