Farmers Movement Archive

Cold-induced heart attack major cause of deaths

Tribune News ServiceChandigarh, December 17Myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as heart attack, induced by extreme cold weather conditions, has come out as a major reason for the death of farmers at the Tikri and Singhu borders, where they have been camping for the past 21 days.Another protester dies at Tikri Border, toll mounts to 7Worrisome scenarioThree were found dead in sleep while one was referred to Rohtak PGIMS in a critical condition, where he succumbed. An enlarged heart was detected in all these cases, pointing to heart attack as the cause of death. - Dr JS Punia, Civil Surgeon, SonepatThough 24 persons have lost their life so far, at least nine of them — five at Tikri and four at Singhu — died either in sleep or due to sudden discomfort like chest pain.“We have conducted postmortem of those who died at the Tikri border. The actual cause of death will be known once we get viscera reports from the Forensic Science Laboratory. Prima facie, it appears that the deaths occurred due to extreme winter-induced MI,” said Dr Sanjay Dahiya, Civil Surgeon, Jhajjar.Dr JS Punia, Civil Surgeon, Sonepat, whose team had been attending to those with health problems at the Singhu border, said an enlarged heart was found during postmortem examination in almost all cases, which was indicative of MI.“Three were found dead during sleep while one was referred to the PGIMS in Rohtak in a critical condition, where he died during treatment. An enlarged heart was detected in all these cases, pointing to heart attack as cause of death,” Dr Punia added.Dr Viney Singla, a physician, explained that cold weather conditions made one’s heart work harder to keep the body warm.“The person’s blood vessels constrict so that heart can concentrate on pumping blood to the brain and other major organs. The cold can also increase the risk of developing blood clots, which can lead to heart attack or stroke,” he said.Dr Singla explained that since a large number of farmers had been camping away from home for three weeks, those suffering MI could already have uncontrolled blood pressure or diabetes or could have been missing their daily medicines.A doctor visiting the protesters said on the condition of anonymity that one could not rule out the possibility of some of them having died due to Covid since farmers had been camping without observing pandemic protocols and the infection too caused MI.Dr Dahiya said the possibility of MI due to Covid was low as one of them had fever before his death. “We have 10 medical teams at the Tikri border, which have examined over 35,000 patients. Initially, a large number of farmers came with fever, cold and sore throat. Over one-third of those coming now have gastroenteritis, which can be because of contaminated water or food,” he said.He said all teams had Covid testing facilities, but the farmers were not giving their consent and they could not test a person against his will.Asked why Covid test was not being carried out on the deceased, Dr Dahiya said according to ICMR guidelines, the test could be done in case of suspected cases and none of them had fever or any other symptom of the infection.

The Tribune

2020-12-18