Soumitra Chatterjee given blood transfusion in Kolkata hospital; actor's condition remains critical

Veteran actor Soumitra Chatterjee was given blood transfusion on Sunday after his haemoglobin count fluctuated as his condition remained critical, one of the attending doctors said in a statement. Chatterjee, 85, was admitted to a private hospital in the city 25-days back after he 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 fire fighting with complications happening.” “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, 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 to give 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 infection part is not that bad.” Two sessions of dialysis had earlier been conducted on Soumitra Chatterjee, because of which his vital parameters became stable at that time. The veteran actor is on ventilator support since last week. The iconic actor, who debuted in the Satyajit Ray masterpiece Apur Sansar, has been under treatment since 6 October after he tested positive for COVID-19. He later tested negative for the infection but COVID-19 encephalopathy set in and various other comorbidity complications surfaced.