Aniket Mahata, a prominent face of the junior doctors’ protests, was admitted to the critical care unit (CCU) of RG Kar Medical College and Hospital early on Friday after his condition deteriorated rapidly five days after he joined six other junior doctors in a fast unto death at Esplanade.

A five-member medical board with experts from the anesthesiology, cardiology, medicine, nephrology and gastroenterology departments has been set up to treat Mahata. Preliminary reports indicated he was severely dehydrated.

A postgraduate trainee in anesthesiology at RG Kar, where a 31-year-old doctor was raped and murdered on August 9, Mahata joined junior doctors in the fast on Sunday, a day after six others began.

“Aniket Mahata had to be admitted to CCU after his condition started worsening. His condition remains critical,” Soma Mukherjee, head of the medical team and professor of anesthesiology at RG Kar said on Friday.

“There is a high presence of ketones in his urine, which suggests extreme dehydration of body cells. We have started his treatment but his high blood pressure may aggravate his condition. He has suffered some damage already and it will require time to heal.”

Around Friday afternoon, a picture of him seated on the hospital bed emerged and many heaved a sigh of relief.

Junior doctors said Mahata’s condition started deteriorating on Thursday when ketone bodies were found in his urine sample, suggesting depletion of the glucose and glycogen levels in the blood.

Doctors said the presence of ketones in the urine meant the liver was not functioning properly. If ketones keep accumulating in the body, a patient can go into a coma.

Early on Friday, as Mahata’s condition started worsening, he was taken to an ambulance from the protest site in a wheelchair and rushed to RG Kar.

The police ensured the ambulance did not have to stop at any traffic signal from Esplanade to the medical college, despite the heavy presence of puja revellers along Central Avenue.

“Aniket Mahata remains very strong mentally. The condition of other fasting doctors, too, is deteriorating. How many need to be admitted to hospital before the state government sits up and shows its humane face?” said Debasish Halder, one of the protesting doctors.