The theme of this year’s World Heart Day, “Don’t miss a beat” is an urgent call to action to raise awareness about the devastating nature of heart diseases and to take immediate steps to prevent, detect and manage them effectively and efficiently. The timing for this call couldn’t be better, as it comes at a juncture when we are losing more and more young lives without warning. Or we are, perhaps, missing subtle, hidden warnings.

A recent tragic incident was the sudden collapse of an apparently healthy 39-year-old heart surgeon while he was engaged in ward rounds in a hospital in Tamil Nadu. Despite the fact that he received prompt medical assistance and was successfully resuscitated and treated with advanced therapies including angioplasty and ECMO, he succumbed to his massive heart at

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