Former President APJ Abdul Kalam showed no signs of life when he was brought to Bethany hospital here in the evening, a doctor who attended on him said.
Kalam, 83, was rushed to the hospital in Nongrim hills in Meghalaya capital at around 7 pm, where he was in the Intensive Care Unit(ICU) for 45 minutes before he was declared dead.
Dr A M Kharbamon, a specialist who attended to Kalam after he was brought to the hospital, told reporters that he was declared dead at 7:45 pm.
Asked whether he was brought dead, Kharbamon said, "Kalam showed no signs of life but cannot have been declared so. On arrival, he showed no spontaneous respiration and (there was) no pulse, no BP and his pupils were dilated."
"All efforts were made but he could not be revived. He was declared dead at 7:45 pm. The cause of death is sudden cardiac arrest," he said.
A team of five doctors including Dr Kharbamon attended to the former President. Kalam, who arrived here at around 5:40 pm, had come here to give a lecture at the IIM.
The Institute's director Prof Amitabha De said Kalam began his lecture at around 6:35 pm. After five minutes of his lecture on "Liveable planet", he collapsed and was rushed to Bethany hospital which is less than a kilometre away from the IIM premises.
