Jokowi Sends Medical Staff to Germany to Help Habibie Overcome Heart Condition
Jakarta. President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo sent a special team of physicians from the presidential office and the Presidential Security Detail, or Paspampres, to monitor the ongoing medical treatment of Indonesia's third president, Bacharuddin Jusuf Habibie, who is currently receiving treatment for a heart condition at the Starnberg Clinic near Munich, Germany.
Presidential press bureau chief Bey Machmudin said in a statement on Sunday (05/03) that Jokowi contacted Habibie directly via phone on Sunday afternoon.
An 81-year-old native of Parepare, South Sulawesi, Habibie was admitted to hospital due to a leaky heart valve after having trouble breathing last Tuesday. He was diagnosed with a leaky heart valve that resulted in a buildup of fluid.
Jokowi reportedly sent Lukman Hakim, a heart specialist who works for the presidential office, along with other medical staff to Germany to assist Habibie's treatment.
The president also asked Indonesia's ambassador to Germany to monitor Habibie's condition and report directly to him and instructed the Ministry of the State Secretariat to bear all costs for Habibie's medical treatment.
Former presidents and vice presidents are eligible to receive a number of facilities from the state, including medical treatment, according to Indonesian law.
"The president has ordered to give the best services to Habibie," State Secretary Pratikno said.
Habibie, a former aircraft engineer and president of Indonesia from 1998-1999 was educated at the Institute of Technology of North Rhine-Westphalia in Aachen, West Germany, and graduated in 1960. He remained in West Germany until 1974.
After returning to Indonesia on then-President Suharto's behest, Habibie was eventually appointed as a government adviser and chief of an aerospace company.
Habibie is strongly influential among Indonesian Muslim intellectuals.
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