Ailing Basu 'waves' at Deve Gowda

Medical board to consult AIIMS doctors

 
However, if that has given a partial relief to his admirers, doctors attending on him said that the 95-year-old leader has been responding slightly to the variations in the medicines being administered on him. Deve Gowda flew down on Friday morning to see Basu at the hospital.

“His condition has neither deteriorated nor improved. There has not been any significant change and it has been the same since Thursday. He is now on partial ventilation,” the hospital’s executive director D N Agarwal told reporters quoting from the medical bulletin.
In another development, responding to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s offer, the medical board will hold a video conference to seek the opinion of experts from AIIMS, New Delhi, about the line of treatment as his condition remained serious despite periodic removal of ventilatory support.

“In response to the offer made by the prime minister on Thursday, the medical board has decided to hold a video conference with the specialists of All India Institute of Medical Sciences. After that, they will decide on the next line of treatment. If necessary, doctors from the AIIMS will be brought in,” he said.

  The video conference might be held either on Friday or Saturday, depending on the availability of the AIIMS doctors, Agarwal said. The prime minister, who visited Basu on Thursday, had offered to arrange all possible medical support and specialist doctors for his treatment, if necessary.

Basu, afflicted with pneumonia, is still being fed liquid diet with the help of rice tube. On Thursday night, there were some “irregularities” in his heart beat which were “immediately taken care of”, Agarwal said.

According to Deve Gowda, though Basu might not appear to be improving “clinically,” his appearance suggested he “is better.When we tried to talk to him he lifted one of his hands at me. That shows his brain is functioning perfectly...as things stand, his condition has improved a little,” Gowda told reporters after visiting Basu in the ICU cabin.

Praising the efforts being made for the recovery of Basu, he commended the team of doctors attending on Basu for doing “their best”.

The 95-year-old CPM patriarch was admitted to hospital on January 1 following chest congestion and respiratory problem.