How trainer Yakub Dalim saved Bangladesh cricketer Tamim Iqbal's life after heart attack

IOL News

25-04-2025

MIRACLE Trainer Yakub Dalim heroically saved Bangladesh cricketer Tamim Iqbal (left) from a life-threatening heart attack during a Dhaka Premier League match by administering crucial CPR, avoiding helicopter transport, and ensuring speedy hospitalisation. Picture: Samuel Shivambu/BackpagePix
Image: Samuel Shivambu/BackpagePix
Tragedy was averted as what first appeared to be minor chest pains, before Bangladesh cricketer Tamim Iqbal suddenly suffered a massive heart attack, and it took some quick thinking from his trainer, Yakub Chowdhury Dalim, which ultimately saved the player's life.
On March 24, Iqbal had complained about chest pains, which saw him taken to the hospital during a Dhaka Premier League match in Bangladesh.
On his journey to the hospital, Iqbal subsequently lost consciousness.
It was then that the Mohammedan Sporting Club trainer sprang into action to save Iqbal.
Heroic CPR saves cricket star Tamim Iqbal after heart attack
'The match started around 9 a.m. After warming up, Tamim seemed a bit uncomfortable. He said, 'I'm feeling some chest pain. Can I get a gas medicine?' He took it, but the pain didn't go away. Then he said, 'I think I should go to the hospital,'' recalled Dalim to SportsBoom.com.
Iqbal had been talking up to that point, but the moment they entered the administration building at the cricket ground, he suffered what would later be identified as a heart attack.
'I asked him again and again, 'Tamim Bhai, can you hear me?' Nothing. No movement, no reaction. That's when I knew—this was serious. I checked for a pulse. Nothing. He wasn't breathing either. In that moment, I realised—he was having a massive cardiac arrest. I didn't waste a second.
'I started CPR right away because I knew if I hesitated, we could lose him. The helicopter hadn't arrived yet. I pressed down hard on his chest, over and over, for about two to three minutes. Just then, I heard the helicopter landing on the athletic track.'
Dalim also paid credit to the fast driving of the ambulance driver.
'At the same time, match referee Debu Da was doing everything he could. He asked me what was happening, and I told him, 'It's bad.' Another doctor at BKSP, Samir Bhai, came over. He saw me doing CPR and said, ' Get him to the hospital as soon as possible."
'Then someone suggested putting him in the helicopter. But I immediately snapped, 'If we put him in that helicopter, we're going to lose him.' We didn't have time for that. We had to get to the hospital—fast. I turned to Debu Da and said, 'We need to move now. If I stop CPR, his other organs will fail. His brain won't get oxygen.'