Vajpayee

New Delhi, Feb. 6: Doctors at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences today placed former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on a ventilator to provide him breathing support after his lung infection worsened.

Ventilator support was considered necessary after Vajpayee’s lung infection worsened this morning and he had difficulty in breathing, said a senior doctor at AIIMS where Vajpayee was diagnosed with pneumonia earlier this week.

“He is on mechanical ventilation and under sedation, but his blood pressure, and liver and kidney functions are normal,” the doctor said. Sources said Vajpayee has been diagnosed with bilateral broncho pneumonia.

Critical care specialists said this condition is considered “critical” when it occurs in the elderly, particularly when ventilation support has become necessary. “It is a very serious condition,” the sources said.

Doctors had already begun treatment with antibiotics, hoping the drugs would be able to prevent the lung infection from flaring up. “A major threat of such a condition is septecemia or blood infection which can worsen prognosis,” medical experts said. As part of managing such a condition, doctors would be expected to perform blood culture tests to look for signs of blood infection.

A senior doctor not associated with Vajpayee’s treatment said it is sometimes difficult to pull the elderly out of ventilator support. “The aged sometimes do not have the strength.The body becomes dependent on breathing with ventilator,” the doctor said.