MUMBAI: Noted actress Suchitra Sen has been hospitalised with a respiratory infection and chest congestion.

The actress is being treated with a combination of antibiotics and steroids in Belle Vue Clinic‘s Intensive Therapy Unit.

79-year-old Sen was admitted to the hospital on 20 June in a critical condition. When she was wheeled in, the actress 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.

Hospital sources say she has been kept on oxygen and is being put on nebulizer at regular intervals. 

"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.

Sen, who is considered the Greta Garbo of Bengali cinema, acted in notable Hindi films like Devdas, Champakali, Bombayu Ka Babu, Mamta and Aandhi.

She quit films in the seventies and has kept herself out of public eye ever since. In 2005, she turned down the Dadasaheb Phalke Award