india

Updated: Sep 07, 2019 12:01 IST

The former chief minister of West Bengal, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, who was admitted to the intensive therapy unit (ITU) of a private hospital in the city on Friday evening, is stable with improvements of the severe breathing difficulties and low blood pressure that he was suffering from, said a medical bulletin.

Kaushik Basu, the deputy medical superintendent of the hospital said that the breathing of 75-year-old Bhattacharjee has improved and his blood pressure that had dropped to 80/60 mm has improved to acceptable levels.

The former chief minister is able to speak, he said.

“His vital parameters are stable now. Investigation for cause of anaemia is under progress. He has been kept in intensive care unit. “He has also taken a bit of food,” added Basu.

A team of seven doctors is keeping a watch on him.

A known patient of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) with diabetes and multiple cardiac ailments, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee was admitted at 8:40 pm on Friday with severe shortness of breath, low oxygen saturation and high carbon dioxide levels in blood.

He was suffering from “acute exacerbation of COPD with bilateral pneumonities and anemia. He is being treated with necessary intravenous antibiotics, oxygen and non-invasive ventilation. One unit of blood has been transfused on Friday, and one is being administered today”, said Basu.

“Now that he is feeling a bit better, he is saying that he be allowed to go home. We are trying to persuade him that he should be fully cured before discharge. The doctors, too, are telling him the same,” said Md Salim, politburo member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist).

On Friday night chief minister Mamata Banerjee, governor Jagdeep Bhankar rushed to the hospital soon after the news of Bhattacharjee’s hospitalisation emerged.

Senior leaders of Communist Party of India (Marxist), of which Bhattacharjee has been a member since the 1960s, also reached the hospital.

Bhattacharjee, who served as the chief minister between 2000 and 2011, has also been suffering from eye ailments and was slowly losing vision.

He lives in a small two-room apartment in south Kolkata with his wife.