There was "very slight improvement" in the condition of veteran Communist Party of India-Marxist leader Harkishan Singh Surjeet on Monday, admitted in a hospital in Noida, but the doctors attending on him said his condition continued to remain critical.
"There is a very slight improvement in his condition. There was a little movement of the eye and one limb, which did not happen before. Of late, we are also trying to put him off the ventilator as he is at times breathing on his own," Dr Purushottam Lal, a cardiac surgeon monitoring his condition, said.
Admitted to the Metro Hospital on 6 May with acute respiratory problems, the 92-year-old Marxist leader is on ventilator support and had slipped into coma on May 16.
"His heart beat, his blood pressure and his urinary output are alright. His brain is functioning well. But that does not mean that all is going well," Dr Lal said.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and United Progressive Alliance Chairperson Sonia Gandhi had visited Surjeet on Sunday to enquire about his health.
The dignitaries who called on the ailing leader on Monday included Union Ministers Pranab Mukherjee, Arjun Singh and T R Baalu as well as CPI(M) leaders Prakash Karat and Brinda Karat.
Due to his failing health, Surjeet was for the first time not included in the CPI(M) Politburo at the party's 19th congress in April this year.
He was instead designated as Special Invitee to the Central Committee.
