Calcutta, Jan. 17: Jyoti Basu lost his last medical battle because his lungs, virtually the only organs that had never given him trouble, failed him.

Doctors said the former chief minister had suffered from several ailments over the past three decades but his lungs had always been robust.

“I was very surprised when pneumonia was diagnosed. He always had an extremely good lung condition,” said M.K. Chhetri, the emeritus professor in internal medicine who had treated Basu since 1976.

Chhetri and cardiologist Ajit Kumar Maity, Basu’s personal physician for decades, remember him as an “upright and very sensitive person”.

“He always had normal diet and loved Bengali food, especially fish and eggs. He was also fond of meat but could not eat it because of dental problems,” Maity said.

For several years, the nonagenarian communist suffered from irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), colitis, mild ischaemic heart (reduced blood supply to the heart), atrial fibrillation (abnormal rhythm of the heart’s upper chambers), hypothyroidism (insufficient production of thyroid hormones) and prostate infection. He also had a history of high blood pressure and mild diabetes.

“All the ailments were kept under control with medicines. He never had surgery,” said Joykrishna Ghosh, Basu’s confidential secretary and personal aide for years.

The ischaemia and high blood pressure were detected in the early 1980s. “He was also suffering from mild diabetes but these ailments were not very significant and he was put on mild medication,” Maity said.

In 1997, Basu was diagnosed with colitis and IBS. “He was admitted to a private hospital for a brief period and underwent colonoscopy (examination of the large intestine with a viewing tube) that year but nothing serious was detected,” Chhetri said.

But despite the medicines, the IBS continued to take its toll on his health, prompting him to step down as chief minister in November 2000.

“His general health began worsening from 2005. The next year he was diagnosed with atrial fibrillation. We considered installing a pacemaker to regulate his heartbeat but it was eventually not required,” Maity said.

On September 5, 2008, Basu fell in his bedroom and two days later, was admitted to AMRI Hospitals, Dhakuria. A CT scan revealed a blood clot over the left hemisphere of the brain — a condition called chronic subdural haematoma.

“We proposed surgery but Basu was not in favour. So we decided to treat the clot with medicines,” said R.N. Bhattacharya, the chief neurosurgeon of the hospital.

On the morning of July 12, 2009, Basu lost consciousness while brushing his teeth but his nurse rushed to his aid, preventing a fall. His pulse was too feeble to be read but a cardiac massage by the nurse revived him within seconds.

Basu was rushed to AMRI Hospitals, Salt Lake, where doctors said he had suffered a vasovagal attack or syncope (reduced blood and oxygen supply to the brain).

“He was also found to be suffering from a urinary tract infection but his lungs were functioning properly,” a hospital official said.

Basu was discharged from the hospital on July 19 and hardly left home since, with his bedroom being turned into a makeshift intensive care unit complete with all life-support equipment. Two nurses worked on shifts to be at his bedside round the clock.

Before being afflicted with pneumonia and admitted to AMRI Salt Lake, Basu could not sit on his bed for more than 15-20 minutes at a stretch. “Nor could he read newspapers,” a doctor said.