Gujarat: Six Die Of Heart Attack In A Week While Performing Garba, Health Minister Chairs Meet

Amid the cases of heart attacks in Gujarat, state Health Minister Patel held a meeting with top heart specialists and doctors and instructed them to collect relevant data to find out the exact cause.

Participants at a 'Garba' performance during the nine-day long Navratri festival.

Source : PTI

At least six people, including a woman and a Class 12 student, have died of a heart attack in Gujarat over the last one week while performing the 'garba' dance as part of the Navratri celebrations, news agency PTI reported, citing the kin and the statewide 108 ambulance service. Other than these six deaths linked to the Garba events, 22 other people also died of a heart attack in the state during this period.

Gujarat Health Minister Rushikesh Patel on Monday held a meeting with top heart specialists and doctors of the U N Mehta Institute of Cardiology & Research Centre and instructed them to collect relevant data and conduct research to find out the exact cause of these deaths, PTI reported, citing sources.

The six persons who died due to heart attack while playing garba included Veer Shah, a Class 12 student from Kapadvanj town in Kheda district. According to his family, Veer fainted due to a heart attack while playing garba at a common ground on Friday night, as per PTI. He was rushed to a hospital but could not be saved, they said.

As per records of the '108' ambulance service, 28-year-old Ravi Panchal died due to sudden cardiac arrest when he was dancing on garba tunes at a party plot in Hathijan area on the outskirts of Ahmedabad in the early hours of Saturday.

In Vadodara, 55-year-old Shankar Rana was rushed to a hospital on Friday night after he collapsed on a garba ground in Harni area. He was declared dead on arrival by doctors, as reported by PTI. Mrunal Shukla (31) of Navsari district and 46-year-old Raju Aala of Porbandar district died due to the same reason on Friday and Saturday, respectively.

In Rajkot, a 47-year-old married woman, Kanchan Saxena, felt uneasy and collapsed after playing garba on Friday night. Though she was referred to a hospital, she could not be revived. Apart from these deaths linked to garba, as many as 22 people, including two women, died due to heart attack in different parts of Gujarat during the last one week.

As per the data shared by the '108 ambulance service, they received nearly 750 calls related to cardiac emergencies from October 15 to 22, as per PTI. The service received 673 calls during Navratri, which comes to an average of 84 calls per day (673/8), though the authority pointed out that this is less than the 88 calls received during normal days.

UP Governor Anandiben Patel Expresses Concern Over Hear Attacks

Uttar Pradesh Governor and former Gujarat chief minister Anandiben Patel on Sunday expressed concern over the issue of heart attacks and urged the health minister to conduct a study to find out the reasons behind the rising number of such cases in the state.

While addressing a function at Sander village in Gujarat's Patan district, "Many youngsters suffered heart attacks and died while playing garba during Navratri. We must conduct an analysis of such deaths to find out the reasons. Since Rushikeshbhai is also here, I urge him to conduct a study on how many people died due to heart attack in the last one year," as quoted by PTI.