The condition of veteran Communist Party of India-Marxist leader Jyoti Basu continued to remain critical on Tuesday as attending doctors said his immunity scale was deteriorating and he was given blood to raise haemoglobin levels.
Hospital Superintendent Debashis Sharma told PTI that Basu's resistance to receive medical treatment was going down gradually.
"He was given one unit of blood on Tuesday and the haemoglobin percentage rose to about nine. Another unit will be given on Wednesday to reach the level of 10," Sharma said.
He was still on partial ventilation and there was no plan for dialysis. His kidney was still functioning, he said.
A CT scan showed no change in the blood clot in his brain that he had developed after a fall at his residence in September 2008.
A medical bulletin issued in the evening by AMRI hospital, where the 95-year-old leader was admitted on January one with pneumonia, said he was without fever for the past eight hours.
The hospital's executive vice-president T S Kuckrejja said Basu's general condition was still critical and he was on partial ventilation and on blood pressure stabilising drugs, Ionotrops.
Doctors of the medical board were in touch with AIIMS experts in Delhi. The board would meet at 11 am on Wednesday to review Basu's condition.
One of the members of the medical board A K Maity said Basu's improvement was not up to the expected level.