Slight improvement in VC Shukla`s condition: Dr Trehan

Gurgaon: Renowned cardiovascular and cardiothoracic surgeon, and chairman and managing director of the Medanta Medicity Hospital in Gurgaon Dr Naresh Trehan on Tuesday said that senior Congress leader Vidya Charan Shukla continued to be in a critical state medically, though he has shown slight improvements in the past 24 hours.

"He seems to have showed some improvement with respect to kidney function etc. However, given his age and the trauma that he has gone through, we have to be very cautious," Dr Trehan told media here. He also expressed hope that Shukla will show some definite improvements in next 24 to 48 hours. "Hope that there is more improvement in his condition in the next 24 hours. But it is too early to say he is out of danger," he said. The 84-year-old former union minister sustained three bullet wounds after he was caught in the middle of an ambush by Maoists on a Congress convoy in Chhattisgarh`s Bastar District on Saturday. Prior to being moved to Gurgaon, Shukla underwent an operation at a Jagdalpur hospital for removal of the bullets. Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and Congress President Sonia Gandhi visited Shukla at the Medanta Hospital on Sunday soon after returning from Chhattisgarh. The two leaders inquired about Shukla`s health from the hospital staff and his family members. BJP leader L K Advani, Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit also visited Shukla at the hospital. At least 28 people, including senior Congress leader Nand Kumar Patel, Mahendra Karma, were killed and several others injured when heavily-armed Maoists ambushed a convoy of party leaders inside a dense forest in Chhattisgarh`s Bastar district. The body of Chhattisgarh Congress chief Nand Kumar Patel, who was kidnapped along with his son after Maoists ambushed a convoy of party leaders, was found on Sunday in a forest in Bastar district. The body has been spotted near Darba Gati Valley, police said. ANI