The condition of veteran Marxist leader Jyoti Basu deteriorated on Saturday morning as he slipped into drowsiness with signs signifying “multiple organ involvement.”
A medical bulletin issued by authorities of the private hospital where the 95-year-old former Chief Minister of West Bengal was admitted on January 1 for pneumonia stated that “there has been deterioration in his general condition.”
“His condition remains the same,” a second bulletin said later in the evening. “His urinary output had increased slightly [since the morning] but with the help of medicines,” it added.
Mr. Basu has been kept in the ICCU with partial ventilator support.
Underlining the fact that Mr. Basu’s internal organs have been “affected,” the doctors on the medical board constituted to monitor his health pointed out that internal organs getting affected was not akin to failing.
“He has developed fluid retention, a drop in urine output and he is drowsier,” the bulletin stated.
Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee visited the hospital and was briefed by doctors attending on Mr. Basu about his condition.
Chairman of the West Bengal Left Front Committee Biman Bose, former Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee, Mr. Basu’s son Chandan Bose, the State’s Finance Minister Asim Dasgupta, and general secretary of the State unit of the All-India Forward Bloc Ashok Ghosh were among those who visited the hospital.
Medical experts of the All India Institute of Medical Science and the private hospital where Mr. Basu is undergoing treatment agreed on Friday following a tele-conference that the nonagenarian’s age was the “main hindrance to recovery.”
