Chennai: Popular Tamil actor and comedian Vivekh died this morning in the hospital, hours after he was admitted after a cardiac arrest.
The 59-year-old was reportedly critical in a Chennai hospital after a cardiac arrest on Thursday morning. He was brought in unconscious at 11 am, was resuscitated, subsequently underwent a coronary angiogram and then angioplasty. A medical bulletin said he was critical on ECMO support, which pumps and oxygenates blood outside the body, but died at 4:35 am today.
The 59-year-old actor was brought to the emergency room of the hospital in an unconscious condition around 11am on Friday by his wife and daughter after he complained of discomfort.
Hospital vice-president Dr Raju Sivasamy said the sudden attack was due to an acute coronary syndrome with a cardiogenic shock. It was not related to the Covid-19 vaccine he took on Thursday, they said. Test and CT reports showed that he did not have Covid-19. This was the first time that the actor had come to hospital with an attack like this, Dr Sivasamy said. Vivek had a “mild elevated blood pressure.”
Introduced in films by director K. Balachander, he won 3 Filmfare Awards for Best Comedian – Tamil at Filmfare Awards South for his performances in the movies, Run (2002), Saamy (2003) and Perazhagan (2004) and 5 Tamil Nadu State Film Awards for Best Comedian for the films, Unnaruge Naan Irundhal (1999), Run (2002) Parthiban Kanavu (2003), Anniyan (2005) and Sivaji (2007). He acted in more than 220 films. In 2009, the Government of India awarded Vivek with the Padma Shri award for his contribution to the arts