Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa has been admitted to the intensive care unit of Nawaloka Hospital in Colombo after a sudden cardiac issue at his residence in Kirulapone, the Daily Mirror reported on Monday morning.
A team of specialist doctors is attending to him in the unit, the paper said. It reported that he had undergone several medical tests over the preceding days.
The filing is timed at 9.57 a.m. on 12 October.
The sourcing, stated plainly
The Daily Mirror attributes the account to “sources close to him” — not to the hospital, the family, his office or any named official. The paper itself records that no further details of his condition were immediately available.
This desk found no official statement, hospital announcement or family confirmation, and no second verified newsroom had filed on it at the time of writing. Checks of NewsFirst’s latest listing and Hiru’s homepage returned nothing on the admission, and searches of the other verified Sri Lankan outlets returned only earlier editions. The report therefore rests on a single newsroom citing unnamed sources.
Why that caveat carries extra weight here
Reports that Mahinda Rajapaksa has been hospitalised or taken to intensive care have surfaced repeatedly over the years, and on several previous occasions his office or his family publicly denied them. Past instances include denials issued by his press secretary and by his son, and an occasion on which an admission turned out to be a routine check-up from which he was discharged shortly afterwards.
None of that makes the current report wrong. It does mean the story belongs to a family of claims about this particular person that has produced false positives before, and that a denial — or a confirmation — from his office would settle it quickly.
Context
Rajapaksa, who served as President from 2005 to 2015 and later as Prime Minister, remains the most prominent figure in the SLPP. His wife, Shiranthi Rajapaksa, is currently remanded, and was moved to a general ward at Welikada Prison on 9 October after an examination at the National Eye Hospital.
Not reported
The Daily Mirror’s account does not give the time of admission, the nature of the cardiac issue, who accompanied him, or any prognosis. It does not name a single doctor or hospital official, and carries no comment from his office, his family or the SLPP.
It is not reported whether the hospital intends to issue a bulletin, whether he remains in intensive care, or whether the medical tests of recent days were related. Readers should treat the account as one newsroom’s report pending confirmation.
