Actor Soumitra Chatterjee is “very, very critical”; the situation is “grim”, a doctor at Belle Vue Clinic said on Saturday.

“His physiological system is not responding” despite all efforts, the hospital said in an update issued at 9pm.

“He is still on different life supports and holding on. But it is almost a point of no return… from where he can come back and survive,” Arindam Kar, one of the doctors treating Chatterjee, said.

“It seems that even a miracle will be short of getting him out of the situation as of now. We have explained the situation to his family members. They are in grief. Everyone has seen the effort that has been put. We are trying our last effort,” Kar said.

Chatterjee, 85, was admitted to Belle Vue on October 6 after he tested positive for Covid-19. He recovered from Covid-19 but could not overcome Covid encephalopathy. “We have done everything possible in the past 40 days, but it is the encephalopathy that has undone every effort of ours,” Kar said.

Encephalopathy is a post-Covid complication that can trigger coma, drowsiness, disorientation and multiple other complications, and lead to multi-organ failure, a doctor treating Covid patients at another hospital said.

The update from Belle Vue said a huge team of neurologists, nephrologists, cardiologists, critical care specialists, and infectious diseases specialists from both private and government hospitals came together for Chatterjee’s treatment.

“At the end it is not working. We are very sorry to say that he has not been responding at all in the past 24 to 30 hours,” Kar said.