Former West Bengal CM Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee in ventilation but stable

"He (Bhattacharjee) is responding to the medication, is stable, and has consciousness," Dr Ashish Patra, treating the septuagenarian Marxist leader said.

Seventy-nine-year-old former CM was admitted to the Woodlands hospital on Saturday afternoon with lower respiratory tract infection and Type II respiratory failure following a persistent fever at his Palm residence in south Kolkata.

"We have done some routine blood tests and a CT scan of his chest this morning, " Dr Patra told reporters.

"We have a medical board meeting at around 1230 hours after getting results of the reports," said the medic.

A nine-member medical board has been set up at the multispeciality hospital to look after the ailing CPI (M)'s former politburo member.
A multidisciplinary medical team comprising Dr Kaushik Chakraborty (medicine), Dr Soutik Panda (Critical Care), Dr Susmita Debnath (Critical Care), Dr Saroj Mandal (interventional cardiology), Dr Ankan Bandopadhyay (Internal Medicine and Pulmonology), Dr Dhruba Bhattacharya (internal medicine and Critical Care), Dr Asis Patra (anesthesiology), Dr Somnath Maity, and Dr Saptarshi Basu (Physician and Medical Superintendent, Woodlands) are closely monitoring his progress.

The medic said the patient is in stable condition and has no fever.