Shock and disbelief: Puneeth Rajkumar dies of heart attack

Sandalwood's Power Star Puneeth Rajkumar, 46, passed away on Friday afternoon following a massive heart attack.

The youngest son of legendary Kannada matinee idol Dr Rajkumar, Puneeth complained of chest pain during a workout session in the morning, which was his everyday routine. The actor has been described as a 'fitness freak' by family and friends.

Family friends and gym mates immediately rushed him to physician Dr Ramana Rao's clinic where he underwent an ECG. According to doctors at Vikram Hospital on Cunningham Road, the actor's ECG showed that he had a massive myocardial infarction (heart attack). But by the time he reached the hospital he had become unresponsive and was in cardiac asystole or cardiac flatline, which is a state of total cessation of electrical activity from the heart.

"He was immediately brought to the emergency department of Vikram Hospital at 11.40 am. But enroute, he had a cardiac arrest and when he came here, there was no cardiac activity. For nearly three hours, he was put on a ventilator, and his heart was massaged. We tried for hours to see if there is any response. But nothing happened. The heart rate did not pick up," said Dr Ranganath Nayak, HOD, cardiology, Vikram Hospital.

"Unfortunately, by then, the heart had become very weak due to the massive attack. So, we could not opt for any surgical procedure. There was no cardiac activity. Even medicines did not work, neither did defibrillation (shock therapy)," he said.

After a prolonged struggle by the entire team consisting of emergency department specialists, intensive care doctors and the cardiology team, they had to stop resuscitating measures at 2.30 pm.

Vikram Hospital in a statement said, "Immediate life support measures were initiated. In spite of prolonged, advanced and aggressive measures, the patient continued to be non-responsive and asystolic. The panel of medical experts extended all efforts to save him. He was declared dead at 2.30 pm."

"At such a young age, it wasn't supposed to pan out like this but it did," he said. Asked if the actor had any history of heart complaints, Nayak said, "He had none. Puneeth was an extremely fit gentleman."