A 33-year-old man from Telangana, who had worshipped US President Donald Trump like a God for the last four years, died of cardiac arrest on Sunday after he learned of Trump's COVID-19 diagnosis.

The man, identified as Bussa Krishna, apparently slipped into depression when the news of Trump and his wife Melania Trump's COVID-19 diagnosis came out. Following this, he stopped consuming food and refused to sleep, according to his cousin, Vivek. He had slipped into depression after hearing about Trump contracting coronavirus. He was not eating properly. When we rushed him to the hospital, the doctors declared him dead. The cause of death is a cardiac arrest. His mother had to undergo knee surgery and he has been here in Toopran for the last 10-15 days. As usual, he did his ‘Trump pujas’ and went to the fields. He was perfectly healthy, Vivek reportedly informed a news agency. Krishna had started worshipped Trump when the president appeared in his dreams four years ago. Ever since, Krishna had framed a picture of Trump and offered prayers everyday. He also spent over Rs. 2 lakh last year to erect a 6-feet tall statue of Trump at his home.

Krishna's mother was inconsolable as she reportedly mentioned that she received a call from her son over a month ago, when he told her about being depressed over Trump's condition. He had been performing prayers for last four years. He called me last month and told me he was feeling sad and not able to eat anything as Trump was not keeping well. Five days back I received a call that he was not keeping well and on Sunday I got to know that he is no more, Krishna's mother said. A relative of Krishna added that the man's aim was to meet President Trump at least once in his lifetime and even attempted to do so during Trump's visit to India in February this year.

Dr Pradeep Simha, Managing director of Sushma Hospital in Tupran, apparently tried explaining to Krishna that COVID-19 is a common illness and that Trump would recover soon. However, Krishna was way too depressed to digest the information and also suffered from hypotension. Dr. Pradeep stated in an interview with a news agency, Bussa Krishna Raju's family resides near my hospital and I know them for a long period. They sought my advice one week ago as Bussa Krishna was not eating properly and was insomniac. When asked for the reason he stated that 'America's President was tested positive for COVID-19.' We tried our best but could not save him. He stopped all the solid food and was on liquid diet. For the last three days, he stopped taking liquids too. His body was dehydrated when I saw him. With this it was clear that he had hypotension and cardiac arrest.