Odisha law student collapses during football match, dies in Salt Lake hospital

KOLKATA: A 23-year-old student of National Law University of Odisha (NLUO), and son of an Indian Revenue Service (IRS) official from Odisha’s Bhubaneswar, collapsed and died while playing a football match organized at the Sports Authority of India (SAI) grounds in Salt Lake on Saturday. Sources said victim Ritwik Das reportedly suffered a sudden cardiac arrest during the match and was taken to Salt Lake AMRI Hospital where he was declared brought dead.

The incident is the second one this month when a player collapsed on the field and passed away some time later. The victim on February 2 was a 30-year-old goalkeeper from Bankura.


Das, a fifth-year student of integrated law, had come from Bhubaneswar a few days ago to participate in the sports section of the ongoing annual fest organised by National University of Juridical Sciences (NUJS), Kolkata. The football match was on when Das collapsed around 3.50pm. The hospital authorities informed the police that the exact cause of death was unknown as yet and had to be ascertained after an autopsy. The Bidhannagar South police have initiated a case of unnatural death.

Das’s body was taken to RG Kar Hospital for a post-mortem on Sunday morning and was later handed over to his family members. They took the body back to Bhubaneswar.

NUJS authorities confirmed that Das had come to the campus to participate in the fest, titled ‘Outlawed’, that started on Friday. The fest, which has an exclusive sports section called ‘Invicta’ where football is a big draw, was called off after the incident.

Doctors said sudden cardiac death (SCD) can happen to a young person in the middle of an active sporting activity like football or swimming. In contrast to cardiac arrest, where there are chances of the resuscitating the patient, SCD offers no such scope.

While a critical chest trauma during a sporting activity is one of the most common causes of sudden death, the 23-yearold did not sustain such an injury. Dr Sunip Banerjee, cardiologist at SGCARDIAC Care, pointed out reasons that cause sudden death during active sports, which included sudden chest trauma, undetected pre-existing electrical abnormality of the heart and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy — in which there is an abnormal thickness in a portion of the heart.

“Also, with an increase in physical activity, the volume of a hormone called catecholamine that is released in the blood can increase. This can cause chaotic contraction of the heart, causing sudden cardiac death,” he explained.

Most SCDs are caused by heart rhythm called arrhythmias, the most fatal being ventricular fibrillation which is disorganized firing of impulses from the ventricles. This renders the heart unable to pump blood, causing death within minutes. “That is why one should go in for a thorough screening before getting into a sporting activity that requires a lot of physical movement. Some conditions can be detected,” added Banerjee.

NLUO registrar Yogesh Pratap Singh said Das had been the convener of the university’s sports society for four years and was a good football player. “Das had asthma. The post-mortem was carried out on Sunday morning and his parents are bringing the body back,” he added.