- Vinod Khanna was first diagnosed with lung cancer in 2001 during a routine check-up
- He was a heavy smoker, consuming between 40 and 80 cigarettes daily at the time
- Khanna was diagnosed with bladder cancer nearly a decade later
Vinod Khanna's wife, Kavita Khanna, has spoken about the late actor's long and difficult health journey. Khanna, who died a couple of years ago after battling bladder cancer, had faced another serious illness much earlier - something the family had not revealed publicly until now.
What Vinod Khanna's Wife Said
In a video posted on her YouTube channel, Kavita explained that Khanna was first diagnosed with lung cancer in 2001 during a routine check-up, after doctors found patches in his lungs.
Kavita said he had been a heavy smoker, consuming between 40 and 80 cigarettes a day, and that specialists at the time advised that part of his lung might need to be removed.
She said, "It was 2001 when Vinod had a diagnosis of lung cancer. He'd gone for his annual checkup, and they saw patches in the lungs. He'd smoke 40 to 80 cigarettes a day. We went to the leading MRI specialists of Mumbai, and they all said it was lung cancer."
Kavita said the couple sought several medical opinions and also turned to spiritual guidance while deciding on the next steps. She mentioned follow-up scans conducted later did not show any evidence of lung cancer, although doctors abroad initially found the recovery difficult to believe.
She said, "Later, we went to Germany. One evening, Vinod got this terrible pain somewhere around his shoulder. He was just lying in pain for two days. Then Gurudev came to see how he was, and then suggested we get an X-ray done. There was no broken rib, but the important thing was that there was no cancer. Unbelievable! We came back via London, they saw all the reports, and couldn't accept that there's been a complete cure. They just thought reports got mixed up in India. No lung cancer came back (sic)."
Nearly a decade later, Khanna was diagnosed with bladder cancer, a disease he continued to fight until his death.
Recalling that period, Kavita said, "The prognosis was that if he did everything that allopathy had to offer, there was a 25% chance he'd be alive after two years. Vinod then called Gurudev and said, 'I've lived a full life. And if my time to go has come, I'm ready to go. But I don't want to torture my body.' So, Gurudev asked him to come to the ashram and do the panchkarma. In two years from when he was first diagnosed, the cancer was gone. We did the scans in America, and it was gone."
She added that he had later been advised to stop drinking alcohol and that "he was still in very good health when it started declining. He finally died of bladder cancer."
Vinod Khanna died in 2017.
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