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Ex-Bengal CM Bhattacharjee taken off invasive ventilation; CM Banerjee pays visit
The health condition of Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, who was West Bengal chief minister from 2000 to 2011, has improved, said a doctor
KOLKATA: Former West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee,79, who was admitted to a private hospital in south Kolkata on Saturday, was taken off invasive ventilation on Monday afternoon, doctors said.
“We have been able to take him out of invasive ventilation successfully. His vital parameters are stable. He is now on non-invasive ventilation. The next 24 hours are crucial,” said a doctor from the nine-member medical board set up for the veteran CPI(M) leader.
Chief minister Mamata Banerjee visited the hospital on Monday afternoon. “I think he waved at me. He appears to be stable now. Doctors will be able to explain better,” she said in the presence of the members of the medical board.
Bhattacharjee was electively intubated and ventilated on Saturday night because of altered sensorium and breathing problem, Dr Rupali Basu, chief executive officer and managing director of the hospital, said in a statement on Sunday.
The statement said the CPI(M) leader was admitted with “lower respiratory tract infection and Type-II respiratory failure.”
Kaushik Chakraborty, a doctor from the nine-member panel of specialists, told the media on Saturday that they will wait for at least two days for Bhattacharjee to respond to the antibiotics administered to counter the respiratory tract infection.
“CT scan of his lungs showed on Monday that the antibiotics have brought down the infection level,” one of the doctors said.
Bhattacharjee was admitted to the same hospital for a week in May 2021 and for six days in October 2020.
The CPI(M) leader, who lives in a small two-room government apartment in south Kolkata’s Ballygunge area, is a patient of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). He has rarely left home in the last few years.
Governor C V Ananda Bose and leaders from several parties, including the BJP, have visited the hospital since Saturday.
