Jyoti Basu critical, on ventilator (Second lead)

KOLKATA - Former West Bengal chief minister Jyoti Basu, hospitalised after an attack of pneumonia, was in critical condition and on ventilator Wednesday, doctors said.

A team of doctors monitoring the health of the 95-year-old Communist veteran will again meet at 5 p.m. to review his health, a medical bulletin said.

“Basu is critical. He was put on ventilator support early this (Wednesday) morning as he was having respiratory problems,” said the bulletin from AMRI Hospital.

“His condition is being monitored. The medical team will again meet at 5 p.m. All supporting medicines are being provided.”

The private hospital’s Medical Superintendent Debasish Sharma told IANS: “His condition is serious.”

According to the bulletin, Basu is under observation as he was having trouble breathing since morning.

Basu was hospitalised last week after a pneumonia attack and admitted to the Intensive Cardiac Care Unit of the hospital in Salt Lake, the Kolkata suburb where he lives.

Basu was chief minister of West Bengal from June 1977 until November 2000, heading a Left Front government led by his Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M). He stepped down on health grounds.

Meanwhile, CPI-M leaders Amitava Nandi and Robin Deb visited the hospital. So did Congress leader and former Kolkata mayor Subrata Mukherjee and Trinamool Congress MP Somen Mitra.

“We heard his (Basu) lung condition is poor. But his heart and kidney are functioning well,” Mukherjee said.