If Wednesday was a day of anxiety and rumours over the health condition of nonagenarian Marxist Jyoti Basu, Thursday was the day of partial relief. Basu’s pressure fluctuated but stabilised marginally.
The private hospital witnessed a gathering of political hotshots cutting across affiliations. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh along with Union finance minister Pranab Mukherjee and state chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee arrived at the hospital at around 1 pm.
Bhattacharjee had personally received Singh at the Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose airport here. Both the leaders then travelled in the same vehicle to the hospital.
Singh stayed there for around 30 minutes enquiring about Basu’s conditions from different members of the medical board. He also assured of arrangement of any specialist physician from any part of the country whenever it is felt necessary. Quoting Singh’s assurance, the former Lok Sabha speaker Somnath Chatterjee said that everyone was touched by the concern shown by the prime minister.
Other political VVIPs who visited the hospital included CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat, party politburo member Sitaram Yechury, BJP leader Rajnath Singh and Tripura chief minister Manik Sarkar.
Basu’s son Chandan expressed satisfaction over the ongoing treatment.
By evening, Dr DN Agarwal, the director of the private AMRI hospital where Basu is admitted, said the medical board has decided to shift him from full-ventilation to partial-ventilation. “At the same time, the board has also decided to reduce the dosage of his blood-pressure medication,” he said.
Explaining the shift to partial ventilation, a hospital source said that when body-intake of oxygen is slightly normalised then the air pressure of the ventilation is reduced.
