10 Die Of Heart Attacks After Taking Part In Dance In India

At least 10 people, including a 13-year-old boy, died of heart attacks after participating in traditional garba dances in India’s western state of Gujarat, according to local media on Monday, October 23.

Garba is a high-energy traditional Gujarati dance performed during Navaratri, a nine-day Hindu festival honouring the goddess Durga.

The 10 casualties ranged in age from teenagers to middle-aged people, with the youngest being a 13-year-old boy from Vadodara’s Dabhoi district.

According to News18, the high number of heart attack deaths could be attributed to pre-existing medical conditions, prolonged fasting, poor eating habits, and a lack of awareness about the prevalence of heart health issues in India.

The deaths, which occurred within 24 hours of each other, have once again raised concerns about Indians’ general health and susceptibility to cardiac problems.

Vaibhav Soni, 13, died after falling off his bike while returning from a garba event in Vadodara district on Saturday. He was taken to hospital with minor injuries. After some tests, he was released, but he complained of chest pain on the way home.

His family stated that after giving him medicine, they put him to bed but became concerned when he did not wake up after several hours. He was taken to the hospital, where doctors pronounced him dead due to a heart attack.

Veer Shah, 17, died after reportedly feeling unwell and suffering a nosebleed while dancing the garba in Kheda district on Saturday night.

He was rushed to the hospital, where he died of a heart attack.

Similar deaths have been reported in the Gujarat districts of Ahmedabad, Navsari, and Rajkot.

Ambulance services received more than 500 calls related to heart problems in the 24 hours preceding the deaths, as well as 600 calls about people experiencing shortness of breath during the first six days of the festival, which began on October 15 this year.

On Sunday, the state government asked garba organizers to make sure that ambulances were available and put community health centres near garba venues on high alert.

Cardiologist Anurag Mehrotra believes the teenage garba dancers’ heart attacks were caused by a lack of exercise among Indian youth.

“If you do something that you are not accustomed to and you are exposed to that sort of exercise, these incidents occur,” Dr Mehrotra, head of the cardiology department at Siddh Hospital in Uttar Pradesh state, told the NDTV news channel.