Subrata Mukherjee admitted to clinic after asthma attack

SNS, KOLKATA/BAGDOGRA, 19 JULY: Minister for Panchayat and Rural Development, and Public Health and Engineering, Mr Subrata Mukherjee, who suffered a bronchial asthma attack in Darjeeling yesterday, was admitted to Belle Vue clinic after arriving in the city from north Bengal.

Medical tests are being done, said hospital sources.

Mr Mukherjee earlier in the day left Bagdogra for Kolkata along with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. A senior cardiologist and one of his sisters also accompanied him in the flight, official sources said.

Mr Mukherjee was discharged from the Darjeeling district hospital today and brought to Bagdogra Airport in an ambulance, while two doctors and a nurse accompanied him in the Chief Minister’s convoy.

Miss Banerjee instructed officials to move slowly from Darjeeling to Bagdogra, while she was in constant touch with the officials about Mr Mukherjee’s health condition throughout the journey, sources said.

Mr Mukherjee boarded the flight on a wheelchair. The flight took off at around 4.45 pm.

Before leaving the Darjeeling hospital, Mr Mukherjee talked to his wife in Kolkata over telephone.

He also asked doctors to disconnect the oxygen supply on his way to Bagdogra, after he felt some comfort, officials said. However, while waiting for the flight in the first aid room at the Bagdogra Airport, he again felt uneasy and was administered oxygen immediately.

“He has chronic bronchial asthma. He fell ill in Darjeeling just after the end of the developmental meeting. He is now stable. A specialist doctor and a nurse have been asked to accompany him and they will take care of him in the flight,” said Darjeeling district chief medical officer (Health), Dr Subir Bhowmik.