Departed leader Jyoti Basu’s body was incised on Wednesday to remove his brain, in deference to the former West Bengal chief minister's wishes.
Basu had willed vital organs of his body for medical research.
Doctors at the anatomy department of the Seth Sukhlal Karnani Memorial
(SSKM) Hospital worked on the brain 10 days after Basu died on January 17. His body was handed over for medical research on January 19.
The Bangalore-based National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS) has plans to preserve Basu’s brain, considering it as a resource of great potential for neuropathologists.
However, SSKM authorities haven’t heard anything from NIMHANS. “The (job of removal) started at 12:30 pm and took about three hours,” said Ashish K. Dutta, head of the anatomy department at SSKM.
“We have to see the condition of his organs first after the dissection of the body. We are not in a position to say that how many organs of a nonagenarian’s (Basu died at 95) body can be used for medical research,” an anatomy teacher said.