New Delhi: As the new government gets ready for work, Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi, one of the stalwarts of the last Congress-led UPA government, continues to grapple with poor health. He has been in hospital for the past seven months after a heart attack and though his condition is not critical anymore, his recovery is slow, doctors said.
Dasmunsi, who was holding the Information and Broadcasting portfolio when he suffered a heart attack in October last year, was made minister without portfolio after his condition failed to improve. He was admitted to the Apollo Hospital in November 2008.
His wife Deepa contested the just-concluded Lok Sabha polls from Raiganj in West Bengal's North Dinajpur district on a Congress ticket, and won.
Doctors attending on Dasmunsi here say that his neurological condition is "status quo" but other parameters have been improving in the past three months and "he is not critical now".
"He (Dasmunsi) is still not able to recognise people, but his physical health is improving," his brother Satya Prakash told IANS.
"He is being made to sit on a chair for two hours every day and is also being taken around on a wheelchair for two hours everyday," he said.
Dasmunsi is fed through a feeding tube (percutaneous endoscopy gastrostomy) and his breathing is also assisted.
Apollo doctors said Dasmunsi was not in a coma. They described his condition as 'hypoxic encephalopathy' which is caused due to cardiac arrest.
Hypoxic encephalopathy is caused by decreased rate of blood flow or decreased oxygen in the blood. Severe cases can cause permanent brain damage within five minutes.
Dasmunsi was admitted to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Oct 13 last year after he suffered a second heart attack in three months. He was shifted to the Indraprastha Apollo Hospital at his family's request Nov 20.
Dasmunsi, who has a 10-year history of diabetes, first suffered a heart attack July 8 and underwent an angioplasty and stenting procedure in two coronary arteries.
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