While legendary actor Soumitra Chatterjee continues to be on life support, doctors at the South Kolkata clinic where he was admitted on 6 October after testing positive for COVID-19 have managed to stem his gastrointestinal bleeding.
A medical bulletin said a team comprising a vascular surgeon, a general surgeon and an anaesthesiologist was able to treat the bleeding with the help of interventional radiology. However, the veteran actor remains mostly unconscious.
A report on the News18.com website quoted a hospital spokesperson as saying that treating the bleeding had given the team attending on Chatterjee hope for improvement in his overall condition.
“There should not be any more drop in his haemoglobin count, platelets or deranged physiology," the spokesperson said. "[But] the key challenge is the consciousness part of Mr Chatterjee and we would be focused on that.”
The actor had to be put on life support in the intensive care unit after complications arose due to multiple co-morbidities. Last year, he was admitted in hospital with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and pneumonia.
Chatterjee, 85, returned to work in July after the countrywide COVID-19 pandemic-induced lockdown was eased, saying he could not afford the privilege of staying at home for a long time.