Cartoonist R K laxman continued to be in a “critical” condition on Monday evening, with doctors attending on him at Pune’s Deenanath Mangeshkar Hospital saying that he was on a mechanical ventilator and his vital parameters were “stable”. While laxman’s family members said that his condition had shown improvement during the last 24 hours and that the doctors had given them “hope” of his early recovery, the doctors attending on him said that the cartoonist’s medical condition remained “critical, but was stable”.
“laxman’s medical condition still remains critical. He is on mechanical ventilator, on drugs to maintain his blood pressure as well as on Renal Replacement Therapy. He is holding on his vital parameters like pulse,blood pressure etc. while oxygen , carbon dioxide, electrolytes and glucose concentrations in blood are stable. He is not in a conscious state,” Dr Sameer Jog, Consultant Intensivist, attending on laxman said in a statement in the evening.
Ninety-four-year-old laxman, who had been admitted to Deenanath Mangeshkar Hospital following multi-organ failure on Saturday night, is under constant observation and treatment at the hospital’s Intensive Care Unit (ICC), under the supervision of a team of Intensivists, comprising Dr Jog and Dr Aditya Bhabe ( Consultant Nephrologist).
The creator of the most popular cartoon strip “Common Man”, who had initially been admitted to Medipoint Hospital at Pune on Friday last for an urinary infection, had been shifted to the Deenanath Mangeshkar Hospital, after his condition deteriorated. Talking to The Pioneer, the ailing cartoonist’s daughter-in-law Usha laxman said earlier in the evening: “He is much better now. His condition is stable. He is being attended by a team of best doctors. The doctors, who examined him earlier on Monday, have given us hope about his early recovery”.
The latest is third instance during the last 12 years when laxman has been hospitalised for a major ailment. laxman had suffered a paralytic stroke in his left leg and hand on August 30, 2003. Following the stroke, he had been admitted to the Breach Candy Hospital for nearly a fortnight. After his recovery and discharge from the hospital, laxman was back at his desk, spending at least six to seven hours in a day drawing cartoons for The Times of India (ToI) with which he has been associated for more than six decades.
His pocket cartoons ‘You Said It’ featuring the day-to-day issues through his eyes and ears of “the Common Man”, which would appear on the front page of ToI every day till recently, have endeared lakhs of readers, because of the sharp wit, humour and critical appraisal of the prevailing situation in the country. laxman, who shifted his base from Mumbai to his Aundh residence at Pune in April 2008, suffered three mild strokes, in June 2010.