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It was November 2021, and many hospitals in Karnataka with cardiology wings were seeing an unprecedented rush of patients coming in for consultation. Many of them were outwardly in good health, but they wanted to go through the gamut of tests nonetheless. The catalyst for this was the abrupt death of popular Kannada actor and youth icon Puneeth Rajkumar in the previous month. In the prime of health and an ardent advocate of fitness, 46-year-old Puneeth died of a massive heart attack after finishing a routine workout at his gym.
In the quiet city of Hassan, located around 185 kms from Bengaluru, Puneeth’s death spurred a host of people to consult doctors. The screening revealed increased blood pressure, elevated cholesterol levels, and such in several people. They were prescribed medications and told to follow up in a fortnight, a month, or so. Many came back, but not in 2021 or even 2022.
It was in June 2025 that they started making a beeline for the same doctors, as Hassan district found itself in the grip of terror. News channels were suddenly reporting deaths of people, both young and old, with no prior record of health issues, due to ‘heart attacks’, and many feared they would be next. Fourteen deaths of people under the age of 45 were reported in the span of two months, with the youngest death being that of a 19-year-old boy. And the numbers kept growing every day. By the end of July, around 31 deaths had been reported, all attributed to the umbrella term ‘heart attack’. The number varied depending on the news channel one was watching.
Hassan in Karnataka was once known more for its temples of the Hoysala kingdom in Belur and Halebidu, as well as Jain heritage centres sprinkled throughout the district. In recent years, however, this small district, as one doctor in Hassan described it, “punches above its weight when it comes to politics and news coverage”.
Politically, Hassan is the turf of the regional party, Janata Dal (Secular), with its supremo, HD Deve Gowda, beginning his long political innings here. In the last four decades, it was held by his son, HD Revanna, and his family. Even with the Congress and JD(S) often in a tussle over dominance, it has been Revanna who has held sway over the masses.
In April 2024, the city made national news when HD Revanna’s son, Prajwal, was accused of sexual assault of multiple women and videotaping these incidents. Video clips, running into the thousands, were leaked and quickly circulated. Shocked by the events, the city took a long time to heal.
A year later, Hassan was once again in the news for the unexplained sudden cardiovascular deaths of multiple people. So strident was the furore about the deaths that the finger was immediately pointed towards COVID-19 vaccinations. The issue quickly took on political overtones, and to counter the growing criticism, the Karnataka government set up a task force to look into the deaths and their potential connection to the effects of long Covid or the COVID-19 vaccination. The task force headed by Dr Ravindranath, director of the illustrious Sri Jayadeva Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences and Research, decided to audit 24 deaths.
The task force did not find any increase in sudden cardiac deaths in Hassan and provided statistics to show that it was almost the same as the previous months. It dismissed any connection with COVID-19-related complications, but it was also not able to give any definitive conclusions about the cause of deaths in many cases due to limited post-mortem and clinical data. Families could also share very little about the habits of the young adults who had died. A slew of recommendations were given, including cardiovascular screening programmes for even schoolchildren and establishing a national registry for sudden cardiac deaths among young adults.
Nearly three months after the frenzy, there is a drastic decrease in the number of such deaths being reported. But without a conclusive report from the task force, the bereaved families and others battered by the unrelenting TV news coverage are still grappling with questions, wondering why it happened.
TNM spoke to families of the deceased, medical professionals, journalists, and government officials to get a better understanding of how this district suffered collective panic and endured phantom chest pains.