UNDER OBSERVATION BEHIND SECRECY VEIL: Suchitra Sen

Suchitra Sen is “stable” as she recovers from a “critical lung infection” behind a veil of secrecy at a private hospital in south Calcutta.

The screen icon-turned-recluse, who celebrated her 79th birthday three months ago, is being treated with a combination of antibiotics and steroids in Belle Vue Clinic’s Intensive Therapy Unit (ITU) 207, where she was admitted on the afternoon of June 20.

“She was suffering from severe respiratory distress because of a chest infection and was put on antibiotics and steroids. She was on nebulisation and was also given inhaler to help her breathe properly,” said critical care expert Subrata Maitra, who is leading a team of doctors including Samarjit Naskar and Anirban Neogi to treat Sen.

“She is stable now but we are keeping her under observation,” said Maitra.

“She’s doing just fine,” added Raima Sen, after spending time with her grandmother on Thursday afternoon.

According to doctors, Sen had caught a cold about two days before she was admitted to the hospital. “That was mainly because of the fluctuation in weather conditions,” said a doctor. When she was wheeled in — through the back door of the hospital — she was suffering from “severe respiratory distress” and also running a temperature. The oxygen level in her blood had gone down to 60 per cent, against the normal of 90.

A series of blood tests, chest X-ray and ECG were conducted, with the sputum culture report revealing that Sen was suffering from bacterial infection. “She has a susceptible lung condition which aggravated the situation,” said a doctor, adding that she responded well to the antibiotics and so the fever was gone “the next day”.

Eleven days later, “she is taking her medicines orally and is sitting up in bed and also on the chair in her ITU cabin”.

Sen’s diet too has improved dramatically, from the liquids she was on initially to a spread of omelette, salad, macaroni, baked bekti, chicken curry and even chicken cutlet. “At times her daughter Moon Moon — who is almost throughout by her side — is bringing home-cooked food but she is also having hospital food. Baked bekti and chicken cutlet are her favourites,” said a hospital source.

Sen, who blazed the Bengali screen, particularly with Uttam Kumar, is now confined to a corner room in a hospital ITU with security guards at the door keeping the world at bay. She is just waiting to recover enough to return to her room on Ballygunge Circular Road where she has shunned the public eye for over three decades.