Prayaag Sengupta
October 26, 2020
The First Indian Cricket Team Captain to win the World Cup, Kapil Dev, was discharged on Sunday from a city hospital, two days after undergoing Angioplasty following a heart attack. Angioplasty is a procedure which helps restore normal blood flow to the heart by opening the blocked arteries.
Kapil Dev with Dr Atul Mathur, post angioplasty (Source: Times of India
(Photo Courtesy: Chetan Sharma Twitter handle))
Kapil was taken to Fortis Escorts Heart Institute’s emergency department after he complained of chest pain on Thursday. According to the hospital’s statement, Kapil Dev will be evaluated regularly by Dr Atul Mathur. His condition was evaluated upon his admission and an emergency coronary angioplasty was performed by Dr Atul Mathur, Director of the cardiology department, Fortis Escorts Heart Institute as per TOI.
"Since Kapil has had a sugar problem for a long time, there could be an issue with such patients. In diabetic patients, blood vessels have more calcium deposits. So that is an issue that could happen to patients undergoing angioplasty. But he is stable," another doctor who did not wish to be identified, had told IANS, according to Free Press Journal.
The 61-year old World Cup winning legend continues to have an impact both on and off the field of cricket. Kapil is popularly known as 'Kapil Paaji'. The legendary All-Rounder and Hall of Fame Inductee, was wished a speedy recovery by many well-known personalities including the current Indian Cricket Team Captain, Virat Kohli and Former Indian Batting Maestro, Sachin Tendulkar among others, on social media. Not only cricketers and famous personalities, but fans also took to social media to pray for his recovery and convey their concern.
Kapil then took to social media to thank everyone for all their love and concern. “I am overwhelmed with the good wishes and well on the road to recovery,” as per Kapil Dev’s statement. Kapil Dev is one of the greatest to ever play the game of cricket and holds the record of claiming 434 wickets and accumulating more than 5000 runs in Test Cricket. He also played the role of India’s National coach between 1999 and 2000, the reason why there is so much nostalgia in the Indian cricket world when it comes to him.
The Former Indian Captain, played the knock of an unbeaten 175 runs of 138 balls in the 1983 World Cup against Zimbabwe which helped Team India prove to the world that they being the then-underdogs, could also be the World Champions as reported by The Statesman. The innings played by Kapil Dev in the 1983 World Cup is still remembered and considered as one of the best ODI Innings to have ever been played and this scripted one of the greatest comebacks in the modern history of the game.
Kapil Dev, also known as the ‘Haryana Hurricane', is a Lieutenant Colonel in the Indian Territorial Army.
Sources: New Indian Express, Deccan Chronicle, The Statesman, The Times of India, Times Now
Edited by Shreya Gupta and Aditya Das