NEW DELHI: Climate activist Sonam Wangchuk Saturday refused intravenous fluids, oral rehydration solution and medication despite an independent AIIMS expert endorsing Safdarjung Hospital’s assessment that he urgently requires fluid and electrolyte therapy. Doctors said Wangchuk remains conscious and haemodynamically stable but is showing clinical signs of dehydration, while his family has not yet consented to the recommended treatment.According to the latest health bulletin, the expert, Dr Akshay Kumar, additional professor, emergency medicine at AIIMS, concurred that immediate oral or intravenous fluid and electrolyte therapy is medically indicated to prevent further deterioration and potentially serious complications. An AIIMS doctor has also joined the treating team for continuous monitoring and clinical management.Earlier in the day, Wangchuk, 59, was brought by Delhi Police and admitted at 7.40 am on the 21st day of his hunger strike with generalised weakness. Investigations showed low serum potassium, blood sugar of 78 mg/dL and compensated metabolic acidosis—a condition in which prolonged fasting and dehydration cause acid to build up in the body while it continues to maintain its acid-base balance. Doctors also noted that urinary ketones had risen from 1+ to 3+ by 1 pm, indicating worsening starvation-related ketosis.Despite repeated counselling by the treating team and the AIIMS expert, Wangchuk declined intravenous fluids, oral rehydration solution and all medication. The hospital said efforts were continuing to persuade both Wangchuk and his family to accept the recommended treatment.Wangchuk’s wife, Gitanjali J. Angmo, posted on X that nothing should be administered without the consent of the family and the doctors who had been monitoring him over the past 20 days. She later wrote to the medical superintendent of Safdarjung Hospital seeking his discharge, alleging that the family had been denied access to laboratory reports and prevented from obtaining a second medical opinion after being informed that his potassium level had fallen to 2.9 from 4.3 the previous day. She also claimed that doctors monitoring him at the protest site were not being allowed to meet him and said the family wanted to shift him to a medical facility of their choice.The admission came a day after a VMMC & Safdarjung Hospital medical team examined Wangchuk and other protesters at Jantar Mantar, found signs of mild dehydration and warned that he had entered the third stage of prolonged fasting, when organ involvement becomes a concern.Wangchuk has been on a hunger strike at Jantar Mantar, consuming only salt and water. The protesters had planned a march to Parliament on Monday.The hospitalisation comes less than 48 hours after the Union health ministry placed three central govt hospitals on alert and designated Dr Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital as the nodal centre for any medical emergency involving the protesters. The ministry directed medical teams from RML Hospital, VMMC & Safdarjung Hospital and Lady Hardinge Medical College to conduct twice-daily examinations, deploy round-the-clock nursing staff, keep emergency medical support ready and submit daily health reports.
