Cardiac arrests continue to consume young lives in Kashmir with a doctor now dying at his clinic in south Kashmir’s Anantnag district on Monday.
AashiqHussain, 45, a radiologist was attending to his patients at a private clinic in Anantnag town, when he collapsed suddenly.
Hussain was shifted to GMC Anantnag where doctors declared him bought dead on arrival.
Hailing from Lal Bazar area of Srinagar, he was posted as Medical Officer at SDH Shangus.
“Yes, he died of a massive cardiac arrest at his clinic. Evidently, he wasn’t sick at all,” Chief Medical Officer (CMO), Anantnag, Dr Mukhtar Ahmad Shah told Greater Kashmir.
He said the doctor had got his first Covishield dosage on February 19 and his second dosage was due now.
“The exact cause of his cardiac arrest is not known,” the CMO said.
Last evening, a 48-year-old Imtiyaz Ahmad Khan also died of a massive heart attack.
According to his family, Khan, a contractor by profession collapsed during work near the FM Lane at NaiBasti near KP Road.
“He was hale and hearty and had no underline disease,” they said.
The two incidents are not isolated cases.
In the past few months, Kashmir is witnessing a steep surge in sudden deaths due to massive heart attacks among the young people without any underlying disease.
Earlier, aging was considered as one of the major risk factors for heart attacks, and it was typically seen among the elderly people. But now, it is consuming young lives.
Shahid Iqbal Tak, a senior consultant cardiologist at SMHS, Srinagar, acknowledges the rise in sudden cardiac deaths but says that the cause could be known only once we have proper research in hand.
“The sudden deaths of young people are certainly due to cardiac arrests. There is no doubt about it. However, unless we go for a proper research, the underlying causes won’t be found,” Dr Shahid said.
However, he attributed most of the sudden cardiac arrests to coronary heart diseases and muscle diseases.
“If it is a stroke during a particular period like winters we can find it out as there are clear symptoms. However, in case of the recent two cases, only autopsy can find out the cause,” DrShahid said.
He said if smokers get heart attack, a clot is usually formed that becomes the cause of sudden death.
Dr Shahid said the primary intervention was pivotal to prevent heart attacks.
“Unfortunately, due to lack of resources we only focus on secondary intervention where we only treat the patient once he reaches the hospital,” he said.
On whether COVID-19 could be the cause of heart attacks, Dr Shahid said, “It can lead to pulmonary embolism and hence sudden deaths.”
However, he said the cause of heart attacks during pandemic needs research.
“As COVID-19 is a new virus, not much information is available to us. To which extent it can cause damage is not exactly known. Hence, it is premature to attribute the sudden spike in heart attacks during the pandemic to the virus,” Dr Shahid said.