Manmohan Singh leaves AIIMS on Sunday. (PTI)

New Delhi, Feb.1: Cardiac rehabilitation expert Aashish Contractor finds himself in a situation where he won’t need to suggest lifestyle changes to a patient emerging from a bypass surgery.

Doctors who discharged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh from AIIMS this morning have pencilled a diet-and-exercise regimen to help him recover from surgery. But this regimen doesn’t prescribe lifestyle changes.

“Dr Singh is his own best doctor. His living habits are well-regulated and he’s a disciplined eater,” said cardiologist K. Srinath Reddy, who chairs the Prime Minister’s medical panel. “We’re only assisting him to return to his lifestyle,” Reddy told The Telegraph.

Singh, who had undergone surgery and received five fresh grafts (blood vessels) for his heart last week, was sent home this morning.

“It is going to take him about two to three weeks to come to office and work. In fact, in a week’s time, he will start working from home. By the pace of his recovery, I am sure he will come to office in two to three weeks,” health minister Anbumani Ramadoss said. “He has already started seeing files. We have asked him to go slow,” the minister added.

Doctors said the Prime Minister was expected to be ready for most of his normal activity around four weeks after surgery and for normal activity six weeks after surgery.

The exercise regimen at home would be aimed at helping the Prime Minister progressively increase his level of activity. “Patients need to recover from both — the effects of surgery and the effects of bed rest after the surgery,” said Contractor, a cardiac rehabilitation expert from the Asian Heart Institute (AHI), Mumbai, who is among a team of doctors and physiotherapists helping Singh to recover.

A team of doctors from AIIMS and the AHI had operated on the Prime Minister last Saturday.

“There are certain changes in physiological parameters brought about by a prolonged period of bed rest and these are returned to normal through a gradual increase in the amount of exercise,” Contractor said.

About a week after a bypass surgery, a person would typically be asked to walk about gently for 3 to 5 minutes, four times a day. The duration of walking may be increased by around five minutes each successive week, he said.

Like any other patient who has undergone heart surgery, Singh will be prescribed a diet regimen to keep his diabetes under control and maintain blood cholesterol levels within the normal values. “For the Prime Minister, it would be a return to virtually the same diet he was having earlier,” said a senior team member. “The only change being prescribed would be some additional nutrition during the post-surgical phase,” the doctor said.

“Before the diagnosis and the bypass surgery last week, Singh used to either take a brisk walk or work on a treadmill virtually every day,” said a medical team member. “Our goal is to help him return to that level of activity a few weeks from now.”

A cardiothoracic surgeon said Singh’s previous experience of a bypass surgery could help him cope with the post-surgical discomfort much better than patients recovering from a first-time bypass.

The Prime Minister had a previous bypass surgery in 1990 and had an angioplasty in 2004. The earlier graft and stents introduced during the angioplasty had developed blockages as had his right coronary artery.

Contractor and Vijay D’Silva and three nurses from the Mumbai-based hospital will monitor the Prime Minister’s condition at his residence.