When Nargis was in deep coma and doctors told Sunil Dutt to take her off life support: ‘I would sit with her, talk for hours’

On Sunil Dutt's death anniversary, here's an anecdote from the time when the late actor would sit by his wife Nargis' bedside for hours and talk to her even though she was in deep coma.

By: Entertainment Desk

New Delhi | May 25, 2023 03:29 PM IST

4 min read

Sunil Dutt and Nargis Dutt met on the sets of Mother India. (Photo: Express Archives)

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Late actors Sunil Dutt and Nargis had a love story that was written in the stars. The couple first felt a spark towards each other when they were working together in Mehboob Khan’s Mother India. After they got married, Sunil and Nargis stuck by each other through the many hardships they endured. When Nargis was diagnosed with cancer, Sunil made sure that she got the best treatment that was available at the time and flew her to the US. But, sadly, her health worsened and she fell into deep coma.

Sunil, in a 1997 interview with Simi Garewal, shared that at one point, the doctors told him that it was only the machines that were keeping her alive and her state was such that even if she came back from coma, she would be a “vegetable.” The doctors told him that this was the “end” and he was asked to make a choice to “let her go.”

“A time came when her kidneys failed, she developed a heart problem and the doctor told me, ‘Sunil, this is now the end and I don’t feel that even if she recovers from the coma, she might be like a vegetable. And it is better that we switch off the machines and let her go’,” he recalled.

Also Read | Sunil Dutt fell in love with Nargis as she took care of his ill sister: ‘I knew she was the one’

Sunil said that he “couldn’t answer” and told the doctors that he would discuss this with his children. “My kids started crying when I told them and they said ‘Papa, no. As long as there is medicine and as long as the machines are working on her, let it go on. And we are sure our mother will come back to us’. I told the doctor that my kids don’t agree and let her continue,” he shared.

Sunil shared that many people told him that if one talks to the person who is deep coma, they understand and so, he would sit by Nargis and talk to her for hours, and eventually, she came back. “A lot of people told me that if a person is in deep coma and if you go close to her, you keep on talking to her, one receives the message. So I used to talk to her for hours, sitting over there, talking to her about India, how the people of India are sending messages and telegrams and how your kids are and how they are talking about you. For hours, I used to talk. I don’t know how but she came back and she looked at me and smiled,” he recalled.

Sunil Dutt and Nargis with their children – Sanjay, Namrata and Priya. (Photo: Express Archives)

Simi also recalled one of her conversations with Nargis upon her return to India. She shared “I still remember Nargis ji saying it. She said ‘I opened my eyes and I saw my husband praying’ and she said, ‘Simi, I am so lucky, aren’t I lucky?'”

Sunil said that Nargis had already told her that she does not want to die in a foreign country but Sunil wanted to do everything in his power to save his wife. “She told me that she wants to go back home and she said ‘I don’t want to die in this country. I want to die, if I was to die, in India,” he recalled.

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Nargis’ health revived in the US and she made it back to India. But, soon after, she relapsed and passed away in 1981.

Sunil Dutt lived passed away in 2005 at the age of 76.

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