Write Comment     |     E-Mail To a Friend     |     Facebook     |     Twitter     |     Print

Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, former President of India, ‘very critical’ after falling ill

Shillong:  Former president APJ Abdul Kalam has been admitted to a private hospital in Shillong in Meghalaya in a critical condition.

Dr Kalam, 84, collapsed at the Indian Institute of Management-Shillong while delivering a lecture to the students of the B-school.

"He is in the Intensive Care Unit. We are examining him. We suspect that it could be cardiac arrest," John Sailo Ryntathiang, director of Bethany Hospital, told IANS.

Dr Kalam served as the 11th President on India from 2002 to 2007.

Dr Kalam was born in Rameswaram on October 15, 1931, to a boatman.

He played a pivotal role in India’s Pokhran-II nuclear test in 1998, the first since the test by India in 1974. He was known as the missile man of India.

For his achievements, he was awarded the Padma Bhushan and Bharat Ratna, and then he became the 11th President of India in 2002.