'I am ready', PM told doctors before operation

"I am ready" is what a calm and composed prime minister Manmohan Singh had told his doctors before going for the coronary artery bypass surgery at AIIMS here on Saturday.

Asked what Singh had said before the 14-hour long operation, Sampath Kumar, head of the department, cardiac surgery, told reporters that before he was given anaesthesia, the 76-year-old prime minister said "I am ready".

Singh was calm and composed and fully conscious of the expertise of the surgical team, S Reddy, another cardiac surgeon who was part of the doctors' team, said.

The prime minister on Saturday underwent a successful coronary by-pass surgery at AIIMS, a complex beating-heart operation
that took nearly 14 hours.

"The operation is successful. The prime minister was shifted to Intensive Care Unit at 2055 hours," the prime minister's Media Advisor Deepak Sandhu said.

The surgery began at 0715 hours and was conducted by a team of doctors headed by Dr Rama Kanta Panda of Mumbai's Asian Heart Institute.