Experts say a number of factors raging from an unhealthy lifestyle to the impact on the heart due to Covid-19 could be behind the rising incidents of sudden cardiac death or SCD
- The head of the Mumbai Cricket Association Amol Kale died of cardiac arrest while he was in New York to watch the India-Pakistan match in the T20 World Cup. He was 47
- In August, India’s startup community expressed shock over the sudden demise of Ambareesh Murty. The 51-year-old co-founder of online furniture store Pepperfry was an avid biker and trekker. He died due to a cardiac arrest during a road trip to Leh.
- In July, a 20-year-old engineering student fell unconscious after running a 10-km marathon in Madurai and died within a few hours.
- Dr Gaurav Gandhi (41), a well-known cardiologist, died after suffering a heart attack at his residence in Jamnagar, Gujarat, in June.
Sad and shocking, these are some of the widely reported cases of what doctors term as sudden cardiac death (SCD) in recent months. Young people are increasingly falling victim to SCD, not just in India, but across the globe.
In India, an estimated 6-8 lakh people die of SCD annually, with a good proportion of them being under the age of 50, according to a recent research published in The Lancet, one of the world’s top medical journals.