BENGALURU: A visionary and eminent industrialist, Vice chairman of Toyota Kirloskar Motor and CMD of Kirloskar Systems, Vikram Kirloskar, died of cardiac arrest on Tuesday night at Manipal Hospital, in Bengaluru. He was 64. He is survived by his wife Geetanjali Kirloskar and daughter Manasi Kirloskar.
According to the hospital, he was brought to the emergency department at Manipal Hospital in Hebbal in an unresponsive state at around 7.30 am on November 29. He was found to have a cardiac arrest and thus resuscitation as per Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLs) was initiated. He was found to be suffering from ventricular fibrillation (a type of irregular heart rhythm) resulting in below-normal levels of oxygen in the blood and higher levels of acids in body fluids. The attempts to resurrect him included administering controlled electric shocks to restore normal heart rhythm.
“He was put on Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) support (in which blood is pumped out to a heart-lung machine to remove carbon dioxide and send oxygen-filled blood back to body tissues) and shifted to CCU,” the hospital said.
He was attended to by the cardiologist, cardiothoracic and vascular surgeons, neurologists and a team of doctors in critical care during resuscitation and also during the entire treatment. Electroencephalogram (EEG), a test to measure electrical activity in the brain, was also conducted in the presence of a neurologist, but it showed no brain activity.
He gradually went into bradycardia (slow heart rate), but despite resuscitation, could not be revived. He was declared dead at 10 pm on November 29, 2022, the hospital spokesperson said. The management of the Kirloskar group tweeted the news of his demise at 12.50 am on Wednesday. Vikram Kirloskar was cremated at the Hebbal Crematorium on Wednesday afternoon.
The Kirloskar Brothers Limited Twitter handle read: “We are deeply saddened and express our deepest condolences on (the) passing of Vikram Kirloskar.” The Kirloskar family hails from the Dharwad region and had made Bengaluru their home. They resided near Hebbal. Toyota Kirloskar Motor was established in October 1997 in Bidadi, commencing production in December 1999.