There has been a five-fold rise in deaths caused due to heart attacks in Mumbai. As per the latest records made available by the BMC, in response to a Right to Information (RTI) query, 98 people succumbed to heart attack every day in the first six months of 2021. In comparison, 15 people died due to heart ailments every day in the corresponding period in 2020. Medical experts have raised serious concern over the mind-boggling figures, even as some cited thrombotic state (abnormal blood coagulation) due to Covid-19. Health officials, however, said there are several other factors and a detailed study needs to be conducted.
While responding to the RTI query by activist Chetan Kothari, the BMC revealed that 17,880 people died due to heart attack between January and June 2021, while 2,816 people died in the same period in 2020.
Dr Kishore Sathe, specialist in emergency medicine at PD Hinduja Hospital and Medical Research Centre said, “We have seen a sharp rise in heart attack patients since 2021, with some as young as 40.” He cited uncertainty in life, job insecurity, sedentary lifestyle and stress as some of the reasons.
Dr Avinash Supe, the head of Covid death review committee also said that the data needs to be analysed before coming to any conclusion. He also added delayed diagnosis to the list of reasons.
He said, “We have to check whether patients were Covid positive at the time of death. There is a possibility these patients might have died at home or after turning negative for Covid-19 maybe a week or a month later because of a thrombotic (clotting of blood) episode. We need to check for other factors, too.”
Senior cardiologists from private and civic-run hospitals said that during the pandemic, other illnesses, including heart illnesses, took a backseat and people avoided health check-ups. But a sedentary lifestyle in the 35-60 age group is one of the main reasons, they said.
Dr Abdul Samad Ansari, director of Critical Care Services at Nanavati Max Hospital, said, “Thrombotic episodes were noticed during the pandemic as a reason. However, that is just an observation and we cannot correlate the same as we aren’t aware of the population dynamic or demographic statistics, past history of Covid infection, vaccination status and existing medication routine of these individuals.” He said if there is no history of Covid in the patients, then the causes could be major lifestyle problems, additional distress or clinical anomalies, which are yet to be analysed.
