Youth are the new victims of cardiac arrest

Avinash Devidas, a 23 year-old student,  recently suffered a massive heart attack and had to undergo an angioplasty in Sion Hospital. Recalling the warning signs before the attack he said, “I was travelling by train in a crowded compartment and felt very uneasy. It lasted for five minutes and I was unable to speak.”  Devidas ignored the warning sign. Two days later, he suffered a heart attack. “I experienced extreme pain in my back and left arm. I was rushed to the hospital and my heart was stabilised in the ICU,” he said.

Researchers from Sion Hospital surveyed 400 such patients between the age of 20 and 40 years for three years and the results of their survey revealed that 53 per cent of the patients that suffered heart attacks were below the age of 35. The average age for contracting heart diseases is increasingly going down and it’s now not unlikely for youth in their twenties to suffer heart attacks. Dr PJ Nathani, head of the department of cardiology at Sion Hospital says, the decrease in the age of patients who suffer heart attacks is connected to the sedentary lifestyle, awry dietary habits and smoking habit among the youth.