Written By: Satata Karmakar | Published : May 24, 2026 11:59 AM IST
Medically Verified By: Dr Varun Bansal
Exhausted caregiver in a hospital corridor (Image created using AI).
The recent demise of a young oncologic surgeon from a possible cardiac arrest has shaken not only the medical fraternity but countless individuals who saw in him the image of dedication, intellect, healing, and purpose. His passing is not merely the loss of a doctor. It is the loss of a son, perhaps a husband, a father, a friend, a colleague, a mentor, and a future that should have continued for decades.
For those working in advanced cardiac care hospitals, such tragedies are becoming painfully familiar. We increasingly encounter young men and women in their forties and fifties arriving with massive heart attacks, malignant arrhythmias, severe coronary artery disease, or sudden cardiac arrest. Some are executives, some healthcare workers, some seemingly "healthy" individuals with active lifestyles and no outward signs of disease, and there would be many who never made it to the hospital alive.
Every time a young person dies suddenly, society reacts with disbelief. "How could this happen?" becomes the universal question. But inside cardiac intensive care units, emergency rooms, and operating theatres across India, the answer is becoming disturbingly evident: cardiovascular disease in India is affecting people younger, earlier, and more aggressively than ever before. In this article, Dr Varun Bansal, senior consultant cardiac surgeon at Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals, tells us more about this silent crisis that Indian healthcare is facing right now.
Multiple Indian studies have documented the growing burden of premature coronary artery disease (CAD) among adults younger than 45 years. The landmark CADY (Coronary Artery Disease in the Young) Registry, involving 22 centres across India and nearly 1000 young patients, demonstrated a high prevalence of acute coronary syndrome, diabetes, hypertension, smoking, obesity, and strong family history among younger Indians presenting with heart disease. The registry highlighted that Indians develop coronary artery disease nearly a decade earlier than many Western populations.
Importantly, evidence suggests that premature heart disease is not restricted to metropolitan populations alone. A prospective observational study evaluating coronary artery disease among rural Indian youth below 35 years of age concluded that smoking, abdominal obesity, low HDL cholesterol, and rapid urbanisation of lifestyle patterns are contributing to increasing incidence of premature coronary artery disease even in rural India
The reasons are complex and deeply intertwined with modern life. Genetics plays a major role. Moreover, the modern Indian lifestyle has become profoundly cardiotoxic. Long working hours, chronic stress, sleep deprivation, unhealthy dietary patterns, sedentary behaviour, smoking, alcohol misuse, environmental pollution, and psychological burnout collectively create a silent cardiovascular storm. Even individuals who appear physically fit may harbour dangerous coronary plaques or electrical instability within the heart.
Among doctors and healthcare workers, the irony is especially painful. They spend their lives saving others while neglecting themselves. Surgeons, physicians, nurses, and healthcare professionals frequently work through exhaustion, skipped meals, emotional trauma, and relentless schedules. Symptoms are ignored. Health checkups are postponed. Fatigue becomes normalized. Chest discomfort is dismissed as gastritis. Palpitations are blamed on caffeine or stress. Sleep becomes optional.
Then one day, a young colleague collapses, and suddenly the hospital corridors feel quieter.
What makes sudden cardiac death especially devastating is its abruptness. Families are denied preparation, closure, and often even understanding. A person may leave for work in the morning and never return home alive. Children lose parents. Parents lose children. Spouses lose partners. Entire families enter an emotional vacuum that medicine cannot repair.
The increasing reports of sudden collapse during gym workouts or sporting activity have further amplified public fear. Exercise itself is not dangerous in fact, regular physical activity remains among the strongest protectors against heart disease. The problem lies in undiagnosed cardiac conditions, unregulated extreme exertion, performance-enhancing substances, severe dehydration, or exercising despite warning symptoms.
Heart attacks do not always present dramatically. Symptoms may include unexplained fatigue, breathlessness, acidity-like chest discomfort, jaw pain, upper back pain, sweating, or transient dizziness. Many young individuals continue working through these warning signs until catastrophe strikes. The COVID-19 era may also have indirectly worsened cardiovascular health through chronic subclinical inflammation leading to further narrowing down of diseased arteries.
Yet amidst this crisis lies an important truth: many premature cardiac deaths are preventable.
Preventive cardiology can no longer remain an afterthought reserved for older populations. Screening must begin earlier, especially in individuals with family history of heart disease, diabetes, hypertension, smoking, obesity, or sudden death in relatives. A routine health checkup should not merely include blood sugar and cholesterol levels, but a more comprehensive cardiovascular risk evaluation where appropriate.
Equally important is cultural change. We glorify overwork. Exhaustion is often mistaken for ambition. Sleep deprivation is celebrated as dedication. Burnout is normalized in professional environments. We need workplaces that prioritize health rather than mere productivity. We need doctors who seek medical help for themselves. We need younger adults to understand that heart disease is no longer restricted to old age. We need families to encourage preventive health rather than waiting for symptoms to become emergencies.
Most importantly, we need awareness without panic.
The obituary of a young surgeon should therefore become more than a fleeting social media expression of grief. It should become a collective moment of introspection for all of us -- doctors, professionals, policymakers, employers, families, and society itself.
Dr Varun Bansal says, "As cardiac surgeons, we witness both the extraordinary power and heartbreaking limitations of modern medicine. We can perform emergency bypass surgery, advanced robotics and minimally invasive procedures, extracorporeal support, and complex resuscitative interventions, yet despite every technological advancement, there remain moments when the heart simply cannot be brought back. And those are the moments that remind us that prevention is far more powerful than intervention."
He further explained that this thought is not merely about disease. It is about human loss. It is about every family whose life was divided forever into "before" and "after." And it is also about those who are alive today, unknowingly carrying risk factors that may one day become tragedy if ignored.
To all those who have lost loved ones to sudden cardiac death your grief is seen. To all those silently living under relentless stress and neglecting their own health -- pause before the body forces you to.
And to every young individual who believes heart disease happens only to someone older, somewhere else, at some distant time the greatest danger of cardiovascular disease in modern India is precisely that illusion.
