Every few weeks, a new video surfaces: a young man collapsing mid-run, a fitness enthusiast dropping to the floor during a workout, a marathoner who never crosses the finish line. The clips go viral, the shock lasts a news cycle, and then the country moves on, until the next one. Renowned cardiac surgeon Dr. Devi Shetty, founder of Narayana Health, says this cycle is entirely preventable, and it starts with a test most Indians never think to take.
'The Attacks Were Always There, We Just Didn't See Them'
Dr. Shetty pushes back on the idea that heart attacks among the young are a new phenomenon. In his view, cardiac disease in India has always struck early; what has changed is how much attention it now gets. Nearly half of all patients with blocked coronary arteries, he points out, show no symptoms at all before the attack hits. There is no chest pain, no early warning, nothing to send someone rushing to a hospital.
