Basu’s brain to be preserved for study

Doctors at the Institute of Post-Graduate Medical Education and Research (IPGMER) here began the dissection of the body of veteran Marxist leader Jyoti Basu on Wednesday and have taken measures to preserve his brain for the purpose of carrying out medical research.

“We will be dissecting his body over the coming days and whichever organs are found to be in a suitable condition will be preserved,” said Dr. Asis Kumar Datta, the head of the department of anatomy.
“Not badly affected”

On being asked if his brain had been affected by the septicaemia, (leading to multiple organ failure which caused Jyoti Basu’s death), Dr. Datta said that only a dissection of the brain will reveal if there was any damage caused by the infection, but from the outside it doesn’t seem to have been too badly affected.

“So far we have preserved it in an intact state, in case it is required in future for carrying out medical research,” he said, adding that it was being preserved in a solution of alcohol and glycerine.

The 95-year-old Jyoti Basu, who passed away at a city hospital on January 17, after being critically ill for 11 days, had pledged his body for medical research.
“No request received”

IPGMER Director Dr. Pradip Mitra said the institute did not receive any request from the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS) at Bangalore for handing over the brain of Jyoti Basu for the purpose of conducting research.

A few days after his death, Dr. S.K. Shankar, Professor and Head of Neuropathology at NIMHANS said the institute was keen on conducting research on Jyoti Basu’s brain, as a nonagenarian’s is always of interest to neuro-scientists, keen to study age-related and associated neurodegenerative changes.

While the Marxist veteran’s body was donated on January 19 amid a last farewell by multitudes of people, his eyes were taken away within the stipulated time at the hospital, where he stayed since being admitted with pneumonia on January 1.