Soumitra Chatterjee’s Condition Critical, Given Blood Transfusion

Veteran actor Soumitra Chatterjee was given blood transfusion on Sunday after his haemoglobin count fluctuated as his condition remained serious, one of the attending physicians said in a statement.

Chatterjee, 85, was admitted to a private hospital in the city back 25 days after being tested positive for COVID-19. The condition of the veteran actor was a matter of concern due to co-morbidities and advanced age, the doctor said, adding, "We are battling fire with complications."

“His bleeding part is not contained or controlled fully. His haemoglobin is fluctuating. We had to transfuse four units of blood. We had to do a CT to find out his exact internal bleeding location. We are trying to seal the bleeding spot which is yet to be fully successful,” he said.

“Every passing day we may be losing ground” due to his advanced age, the doctor said, adding that “We are correcting a lot of things. We are optimising organ functions. His neurological issues have not been treated fully to the point of his recovery. This is actually the main problem of Chatterjee’s general non-improvement of consciousness status.”

However Soumitra Chatterjee’s “organ functions are holding on, he is putting on urine and oxygen part is satisfactory,” and the doctors are not losing hope despite “so many things happening for an 85-year old.”

The doctor said in the afternoon bulletin that they were considering giving him another dialysis, the third one since Wednesday. Since due to the bleeding “there have been some mild physiological alterations, we might give him a dialysis today,” he said.

The other vital parameters of the thespian are fine, he said, adding that “lung-wise he is doing okay. And the infection part is not that bad.”

On Soumitra Chatterjee, two dialysis sessions had previously been performed, because of which his vital parameters at that time were stable. Since last week, the veteran actor has been on ventilator support.

After testing positive for COVID-19, the legendary star, who debuted in the Satyajit Ray masterpiece Apur Sansar, has been under care since October 6th. He tested negative for the infection later, but COVID-19 encephalopathy set in and numerous other complications of comorbidity emerged.