Doctors puzzled by fasting Mamata's vibrant appearance

Kolkata, Dec 27 (UNI) Medical practitioners are puzzled by the vibrant appearance of Trinamool leader Mamata Banerjee who entered 24th day of her indefinite hunger strike today against the acquisition of fertile land at Singur for the Tatas small car project.

Even as the Trinamool leader was put on oxygen support for some time yesterday after she complained of breathlessness and looked sagging after three weeks of fasting, her overall appearance, according to physicians, was much more 'vibrant' than what should have been in a normal case.

''The sickness she suffered yesterday prompting her aides to provide oxygen support, should have caught one much earlier after such a prolonged period of fasting,'' a noted doctor said.

Yesterday, Dr Nirmal Majhi and Dr Kakali Ghosh Dastidar, who themselves are prominent Trinamool functionaries, attended on the ailing leader and advised oxygen support by reading the symptoms.

Dr Ghosh Dastidar had told reporters that Ms.Banerjee's pulse rate had gone down to 49 in the afternoon and improved to 58 as against the normal rate of 72 after giving oxygen support.

But there was no check up of her blood pressure, weight and other parameters of health since the Trinamool leader had repeatedly refused any assistance from a team of government doctors.

Expressing concern at the condition of her health, Dr Ghosh Dastidar and Dr Majhi apprehended that the blood pressure and the weight of the Trinamool chief, who kept lying on the podium throughout the day, could fall to an alarming level and she could suffer dehydration.

It was only today that for the first time her blood sample was collected by Dr Shyamaprasad Das, the family physician of Ms Banerjee. An examination of the sample would throw some light on the exact condition of her health.

''These are normal phenomena after a person really goes through 'nothing per mouth(NPM)', a medical terminology, implying no food intake in any form. But these signs start appearing after five to seven days,'' the doctors said.

Observing that nothing was impossible and facts could sometime go beyond the reach of medical science in a few rare occasions, a physician said the duration a person was able to sustain without food depended on many factors, including a person's constitution, surface area of the body and nutritional background.

''In general a person can remain almost normal for three to five days depending on the fat and glucose stored in the body. But as the stock gets depleted, the blood pressure and sugar level go down and a profound weakness and lethargy catch up,'' she said pleading anonymity.

''But the kind of vibrancy and vigour we saw in her even a few days ago when she regularly used to address the people and the press, is difficult to accept from the point of view of a medical practitioner. This is something unexplicable on the basis of scientific terms,'' she said.

Another Doctor said even if a person was put on some kind of supplementary support like glucose water and fruit juice that would not help much to carry on with fasting for such a long period.

Supplement would keep going the functioning of heart, kidney and liver for some days. But definitely there will be profound weakness and general frailness, he said.

''In the case of an impoverished person used to frequent bouts of days without meal, it would not make much of a difference to spend a few more days on empty stomach. But what has happened to Ms Banerjee is really unusual, given the fact that she looks quite well-nourished going by the body structure,'' he said.

Holding a different view, another physician, however, observed that a person could sustain with the help of supplements like Tropicana herbal life that could substitute two meals. ''This is a popular food supplement among models which leaves strains in blood and urine. But in Ms Banerjee's case it is quite improbable, if not impossible,'' he said.

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