Nineties drum ‘n’ bass legend Nitin Sawhney praises the NHS after emergency surgery for heart attack

British drum ‘n’ bass legend Nitin Sawhney, known for his Mercury Prize-nominated album “Beyond Skin” released in 1999, has praised the NHS after revealing he had to undergo emergency surgery after suffering a heart attack

The Ivor Novello Lifetime Achievement award winner and CBE discussed going under the knife for his health scare on X (formerly Twitter), having written at the start of the week “ “Can’t say what it is… but I’m about to go through something pretty major. Wish me luck.”

Upon his return to social media on Wednesday (March 6 2024), Sawhney wrote “ “After much reflection, I’ve decided to explain myself regarding the post below… A few days ago, out of nowhere, I had a heart attack. Nuts.”

“I was rushed to hospital and the NHS put a stent in one of the arteries leading to my heart, after which I was kept in to await a similar operation (which I was referring to in my quoted post) on another artery. Both ops have gone well and the NHS were fantastic. I will need a third, bigger operation next month but one day at a time I reckon.”

Sawhney explained the heart attack as “a terrifying feeling. Your chest feels like someone is sitting on your chest holding a 200kg weight and your head feels like it’s spinning out of control as you struggle to remain conscious.” 

“In my case, I completely blacked out, falling onto a glass ornament from a standing position, smashing the coffee table with my face as I collapsed into a pool of blood and broken shards, penetrating both cheeks, my nose and the area just beneath my eyes. Later a plastic surgeon had to carefully remove pieces of glass from my face with tweezers after 4 injections to my face.”

The health scare has now led the musician to encourage other British Asians to keep track of their health, after stating the heart attack took him by surprise given the healthy lifestyle that he leads. “The point is there has been an alarming rise in fatalities from heart disease recently.. particularly amongst British Asians.” 

“So… if you are Asian or, to be honest, in any vulnerable group… get your heart health checked out. It could save your life. You might not see something like this coming… I didn’t.”