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| - Fact Check: False statement attributed to Dr Devi Shetty on Puneeth Rajkumar's death goes viral
India Today Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) has found that the viral statement has been wrongly attributed to Dr Shetty.
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India Today Fact Check
The viral statement has been wrongly attributed to Dr Shetty. His office has called the message “fake”.
The untimely death of Kannada superstar Puneeth Rajkumar on October 29 has shocked everyone. Reports say he suffered a massive heart attack after a two-hour workout in the gym.
But did renowned heart surgeon Dr Devi Shetty say it was excessive fitness mania that led to the 46-year-old actor’s death?
Soon after the death of Rajkumar, who was considered a role model by many for his fitness routine, a viral message attributed to Dr Shetty claims the actor died because of “doing too much to be fit”.
“In the last few years, I have lost at least 8 to 9 people known to me personally, and a few celebrities too, who were in their 40s who died because of doing too much to be ‘fit’. Unfortunately, they only looked fit, six packs and all. Today Puneeth Rajkumar gets added to this list. In anything in life, MODERATION is the mantra. Any extreme of zero or 100 is not correct,” reads the message, apparently by Dr Shetty
The message is mostly circulating on WhatsApp but many on Facebook have also shared it. However, India Today Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) has found that the viral statement has been wrongly attributed to Dr Shetty. His office has called the message “fake”.
Reaction from Narayana Health
As soon as the message went viral, attributing it to Dr Shetty, the founder chairman of Narayana Health, his office reacted on Twitter to refute the claim.
Replying to one of many such posts, Narayana Health issued a statement along with the viral message. The statement reads, “NH would like to clarify that this forwarded message, supposedly from Dr Devi Shetty, is fake and did not originate from his office. Any reference or attribution made to him is incorrect”.
pic.twitter.com/SMKBZtyj6W — Narayana Health (@NarayanaHealth) October 30, 2021
Did Dr Shetty comment on Rajkumar’s death?
Rajkumar died on October 29 and we tried to find if Dr Shetty has reacted anywhere to the same.
We found a tweet by “Times Now” on October 29. Dr Shetty had participated in a TV discussion the same evening after the actor’s death.
But at the very beginning of the discussion, he had clarified that he would not discuss about Rajkumar’s death or his heart condition.
The eminent cardiac surgeon spoke about how Indians are genetically three times more vulnerable to heart attacks compared to Europeans. He warned that every 40-year-old Indian male is a heart patient unless proven otherwise. He also advised tests such as ECG, echocardiogram and cardiac CT angiograms, especially for people who exert themselves in gyms routinely.
However, in the TV discussion, he never said anything similar to the viral message.
Who’s the original author of the viral message?
When the Facebook page “Campaign against Nutrition Quacks and Courses” posted the viral message on October 30, several users commented that it has been falsely attributed to Dr Shetty and the original author is “Purnima Ranganath”.
Accepting their fault, the Facebook page attributed the viral message to “Purnima Ranganath”.
Since the Facebook profile of “Purnima Ranganath” is private, we could not find the original post. AFWA tried to contact her to confirm about the viral message. We will update the article once the response comes.
Also read: Fact Check: Netizens drive on the wrong side of facts on PM Modi’s Italy tour
Also read: Fact Check: These viral photos are of Rohingya, not the aftermath of Tripura clashes
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