PM due home tomorrow

PRIME MINISTER Patrick Manning will arrive at Piarco International Airport at 1.30 am tomorrow morning on board BWIA Flight 439. Manning left Trinidad for Cuba on August 14 to have a pacemaker implant done. An August 12 statement from Whitehall said the decision for Manning to have the procedure done was made on the advice of medical practitioners as a result of a routine medical analysis done on his heart the previous week. The Prime Minister subsequently confirmed that the pacemaker implant was successfully completed last Friday and he was good in health and would return home Thursday.

Government officials indicated on Wednesday, however, that Manning would remain in Cuba for another 72 hours “to facilitate the final stages of stabilisation to the new medication being administered,” and his doctors said his medical condition is “quite satisfactory.” The Prime Minister’s local cardiologist, Dr Rasheed Rahaman, said Manning could continue to live a normal life with the pacemaker and does not have to reduce his current workload. At Thursday’s post-Cabinet news conference at Whitehall, Works and Transport Minister Franklin Khan said acting Prime Minister Joan Yuille-Williams told Cabinet Manning was well and would be returning home this weekend. Newsday exclusively reported that Budget Day in Trinidad and Tobago is September 6.