NEW DELHI: Eminent cardiologist Dr S Padmavati, who was 103 years old, breathed her last at the National Heart Institute said on Sunday.
Recipient of both Padma Bhushan and Padma Vibhushan, Padmavati had tested positive of COVID-19 and was undergoing treatment at NHI for past 11 days.
"Dr S Padmavati, an eminent cardiologist, rather the first female cardiologist of the India, popularly known as 'God Mother of Cardiology' passed away on August 29 due to COVID-19 infection," the NHI said in a statement.
"She was admitted with COVID-19 and had breathing difficulty and fever. She developed pneumonia in both lungs and needed ventilator support. However, she sustained a cardiac arrest and passed away," the NHI said.
Dr Padmavati was cremated at the designated COVID-19 crematorium at Punjabi Bagh on Sunday.
Born in Burma, now Myanmar, she had migrated to India in 1942 during the World War II, she did her graduation from the Rangoon Medical College.
In 1962, Dr Padmavati founded the All India Heart Foundation and went on to set up National Heart Institute in 1981 as a tertiary care modern heart hospital in Delhi with first cardiac catheterisation laboratory in the private sector in the Southern Hemisphere, the NHI said.