Very critical Jyoti Basu on maximum ventilator support (Second lead)

KOLKATA - Veteran Marxist Jyoti Basu’s condition remained very critical Saturday after he suffered multi-organ failure. The 95-year-old leader has been put on dialysis and is on maximum ventilator support, doctors attending on him said.

“He has been put on maximum ventilator support and is undergoing slow, low efficiency daily dialysis (SLEDD),” A.K. Maity, who heads the eight-member medical board treating Basu at the AMRI Hospital, told reporters here.

“Five of his body organs - brain, liver, kidney, lungs and heart - are not functioning. His condition is not at all well,” he added.

“AMRI Hospital’s nephrologists had a talk with their counterparts at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) regarding Basu’s treatment last night (Friday),” Maity said, adding that they had changed some of the medicines Saturday.

Earlier, the medical bulletin said that Basu’s condition was extremely critical and his blood pressure and urine output had dropped. The former West Bengal chief minister suffered multi-organ failure Friday evening.

According to doctors, the level of carbon dioxide in Basu’s body increased, after which he was given more ventilator support.

“He is now under round the clock medical observation,” the medical report added.

The communist icon was hospitalised after a pneumonia attack and admitted in the Intensive Cardiac Care Unit (ICCU) of the Salt Lake-based private hospital Jan 1.

Born 1914 in Kolkata, Basu became chief minister of West Bengal in June 1977. He stepped down voluntarily on health grounds in November 2000.