9-year-old girl suffers multiple heart attacks during lunch break, dies in hospital

In a tragic incident, a nine-year-old girl studying in Class 4 in Sikar's Danta town in Rajasthan died of heart attack. Prachi Kumawat who reportedly looked healthy was opening her tiffin during break time (around 11 am) on Tuesday morning when she fell unconscious and subsequently died. It is suspected that she suffered a heart attack.

The teachers present there immediately rushed her to a nearby hospital, where the doctors tried their best to revive her. According to the medical staff of the hospital, the girl suffered a cardiac arrest as she had no pulse, her blood pressure had fallen, and she was breathless.

“It happened around 11 am on Tuesday. She dropped her lunchbox and collapsed spilling her food onto the floor. We were all on school grounds at the time, so we rushed her to the hospital," said Nand Kishore, the principal of Adarsh Vidya Mandir School.

After being taken to the hospital the girl initially recovered but after a while she again suffered a similar attack, and this time the doctors could not do much.

"Students fainting is not new and kids usually recover once we give them some water. However, her situation was different. So, we took her to the Community Health Centre (CHC) which is just about 500 metres away. There, the medical staff took care of her and she initially seemed to have recovered," Kishore said.

“However, she had an attack again, and this time doctors gave her injections and did whatever they could, and sent off the ambulance. We don’t know if she reached the hospital or not, but the ambulance left around 12:15 pm. At about 1:30 pm, we got to know that she had passed away,” the principal added.

What is heart attack and cardiac arrest?

In recent years, there has been a noticeable rise in cases of people succumbing to heart attack and cardiac arrest.

A heart attack happens when a portion of the heart muscle is damaged due to blockage of coronary arteries that disrupts blood flow. While cardiac arrest is the sudden stoppage of heart function, leading to a cessation of blood circulation.

Dr Brajesh Kumar Mishra, Consultant - Cardiology, Manipal Hospital Gurugram, while speaking to WION said, "Cardiac arrest in younger individuals often stems from structural abnormalities of the heart, such as Dilated cardiomyopathy, hypertrophic or channelopathy. These conditions are common causes of premature sudden cardiac death, particularly in teenagers and young adults."

Regular screening procedures like ECG and Echocardiography in younger patients who are doing aggressive physical activities are advised by doctors to prevent such situation.