Doctors concluded that Mahesh Khokarale’s death might be due to prolonged steroids use, which severely weakened his liver, so that when malaria struck him, his body was not able to fight back.

Mahesh worked as a gym instructor in the Worli branch of Gold’s Gym in Mumbai. According to Althea Shah, general manager, fitness and operations at Gold’s Gym, Mahesh had been with the company for five years. She does not think that he needed to use steroids as a fitness trainer. However, Mahesh could have taken steroids without their knowledge since he started training for the Mumbai Shree title last year. He was also training for the Bharat Shree competition for February 2010.

Upon examination of Mahesh’s blood test results, they found that his liver was badly damaged. Based on the nature of his work, they concluded that he might have taken steroids for a long time. Mild malaria rarely causes severe damage to the liver.

Mahesh suffered mild fever on October 31 and thought that it was just an ordinary fever. The next day, the fever persisted and he was forced to rest at home. On Monday, he went to KEM Hospital where he suddenly collapsed and went into a coma. His condition worsened and he was finally transferred to ICU.

From Ahmedabad Mirror:

Gym instructor unexpectedly dies of ‘mild malaria’ because, doctors suspect, his internal organs had been ravaged by use of steroids.

Posted in Steroids