Legendary singer Lata Mangeshkar is currently battling COVID-19 at Mumbai’s Breach Candy Hospital. An official statement from the doctor who’s treating her revealed that she will be kept at the hospital for the next 10-12 days to ensure a full recovery. Dr Pratit Samdhani, who is treating the veteran singer at the hospital, confirmed in a statement that she is fighting both COVID and pneumonia and is admitted to the ICU.
News agency ANI quoted the doctor as saying, “Singer Lata Mangeshkar continues to be in the ICU ward. She will be under observation for 10-12 days. Along with Covid, she is also suffering from pneumonia (sic).” The singer will continue to remain under observation for almost the entire month.
Earlier, in an interview with ETimes, Lata’s sister Usha Mangeshkar expressed disappointment over not being able to meet her at the hospital. She said the doctors have decided to keep Lata at the hospital for a few extra days because of her age. “We cannot go to see Didi as it is a COVID case. There are sufficient doctors and nurses there, though. The doctors have said that they would keep her for an extra day or two because of her age,” she said.
In November 2019, Mangeshkar was admitted to the same hospital after she complained of difficulty in breathing and was diagnosed with pneumonia. She was discharged after 28 days.
Mangeshkar started her career at the age of 13 in 1942 and has sung over 30,000 songs in several Indian languages in an over seven-decade career. Some of her most loved tracks are “Ajeeb dastan hai ye”, “Pyar kiya to darna kya”, “Neela asman so gaya” and “Tere liye”.
Considered one of Indian cinema’s greatest singers, Mangeshkar received the Bharat Ratna, India’s highest civilian honour, in 2001. She is also the recipient of several other awards, including the Padma Bhushan, the Padma Vibhushan and the Dada Saheb Phalke Award, and multiple National Film Awards.
