HOMECOMING: Suchitra Sen

Suchitra Sen returned to her Ballygunge Circular Road home late on Friday after spending 11 days in the Intensive Therapy Unit (ITU) of Belle Vue Clinic.

Sources said she was discharged at 9.25pm, following an “impromptu decision” taken by her doctors and family members as her general health condition had “improved” and she was keen to go back home. But she would be kept under observation with nurses, oxygen support and nebulisation equipment.

The screen icon-turned-recluse, who celebrated her 79th birthday three months ago, was admitted to the ITU of Belle Vue on June 20 with severe respiratory distress, caused by a bacterial infection.

“Her condition had improved since Thursday. She was on oral antibiotics and was able to move around inside her cabin. Her oxygen saturation level (that had dropped alarmingly at the time of admission) is satisfactory,” said critical care expert Subrata Maitra, who led a team of doctors including Samarjit Naskar and Anirban Neogi to treat Sen.

She was in “a cheerful mood” throughout the day, even reciting and humming some Tagore songs. “She sat on her bed and then in the chair of the ITU cabin 207 and chatted with her daughter Moon Moon and other family members,” said a source.

Sen’s diet for the day was grilled bekti, grilled chicken, chicken soup, mixed vegetable and curd.

The screen goddess of the Fifties and Sixties was admitted to the hospital with severe lung infection which left her gasping for breath at home, where she has remained elusive to the world for decades. She had caught a cold, which doctors later blamed on the “weather conditions” and a “susceptible lung”.

Sen was put on a combination of antibiotics and steroids and also on the nebuliser. She responded steadily to the medication, behind a screen of secrecy that comprised security guards and hospital staff.

“The oxygen saturation level, that was down to 60 per cent is reaching the normal of around 90 per cent. She is on intermediate oxygen support,” said a doctor.