I saw a comment from Bubby on my earlier post on mobile manners saying that the person behind the campaign Mahesh V of O & M Bangalore has has passed away of a massive heart-attack. And today, I learnt from creative criminal that Mahesh was only 32.
Heart attack at 32.
Last night, I mentioned this to my husband, and we were wondering about how old Mahesh was. And I remembered my friend Satty from MICA. Satpal Singh, Satty to all of us. He was barely 30 when he passed away a couple of years ago. Heart attack. He left behind lots and lots of friends, shocked parents and a sister and a wife of eight months.
I recently met a friend-batchmate at the airport and while we were exchanging news, she told me that another of our batchmates had met Satty’s wife a few months ago… She (my batchmate) was at the supermarket, paying with her credit card which has a MICA, batch of* on it, and Satty’s wife in the line behind her, saw that and struck up a conversation with her…
Much as we tried, none of us friends could buy the stress theory. I still cannot associate stress, especially stress that kills with Satty… That impish smile, that chalega yaar attitude…
His friends, all of us still believe that he was just as stressed as the rest of us in advertsing and marketing jobs… He smoked and drank, but no more than many others from our batch…
Then why a heart attack at 29? What is it about our lifestyles that heart attacks at such a young age are becoming frighteningly common… or is it that we did not realy know Satty at all…?
There could be so many reasons but one doctor mentioned to me about sleep apnea and what it can do. And gave examples of a couple of people who died from it, in their sleep or due to increased blood pressure/sugar or a heart attack. He didnt point out any direct link but said that this cause is probably never investigated. A highly stressed lifestyle, lack of sleep is good enough to kill us but we don’t know about it until it is too late