HEALTH: Stroke Unit of CMC Organises World Stroke Week

Ludhiana, October 25, 2012: Stroke Unit of Christian Medical College and Hospital is observing World Stroke Week from October 23- 29.

Stroke awareness campaigns have been planned for the entire week in order to reach out to the citizens of Ludhiana and Punjab.

Stroke or Brain attack is the second leading cause of death in the world. Two-thirds of the stroke occurs in developing countries like India. About 145 new stroke cases occur every year in a population of 1,00,000 in our country. From the ongoing Indian Council of Medical Research population based survey conducted by the stroke unit of CMC the burden of stroke in Ludhiana city is 156 cases per 1,00,000 population.

The World Stroke Day (WSD) is celebrated every year on October 29th by the World Stroke Organization (WSO) across the world. The theme for this year is “1 in 6 worldwide will have a stroke in their lifetime”.

Dr Jeyaraj D Pandian, Professor and Head of Neurology at CMC who is the board of Director to WSO from Asia/Oceania region, and also the Chairman of the World Stroke Campaign (WSC) stated that more than 60 countries will be participating across the world this year. According to Dr Pandian this year the focus is on stroke caregivers i.e. relatives of stroke patients to stress the importance of relative’s role in caring for stroke patients.

The stroke team of the stroke unit organised activities for stroke patients in the stoke unit today in the hospital. The patients were making creative art through activities such as photo frame, bookmark and greeting card designing. These activities enhances the mental functions such as cognition and perception, and fine motor skills.

Staff and the students of the Stroke unit also actively took part in campaigning in the waiting areas and the wards of the hospital, through short talks on stroke- its symptoms, causes and prevention.

Leaflets containing information on stroke and the stroke hotline numbers of the Stroke unit CMC were distributed in Hindi and Punjabi.

Queries of the relatives and patients related to stroke were also addressed by the stroke unit team.

Other events planned for the Stroke week include creating awareness in the village Hambran, through the CMC Outreach center. Stroke survivors’ Meet on 27th October 2012 at CMC Hospital auditorium, Bus tour and road show on stroke awareness, covering different places in the city are also being planned during this week. On the World Stroke Day, 29th October 2012, Stroke Unit of CMC, Ludhiana will be organizing Stroke walk from Park plaza till Canal road.

The key personnel involved in organizing the activities are Lizzy Julia, Dr Santosh Mathangi, Consultant Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation department, Rajni Arora Associate Professor, College of Physiotherapy, Navneet Singh, Devan, Deepika Sharma, Dheeraj KV, Vice Principal, College of Physiotherapy, research staff of department of Neurology (Amber Sharma, Dr Shweta Jain, Gagandeep Mehmi, Dr Deepti Arora, Himanshu Koundal, Raminder Kaur, Paramdeep Kaur) and students and interns of College of Physiotherapy.

The stroke team at CMC is the only unit in the city which is available 24/7 to rapidly evaluate stroke patients who come within the golden time of 4 ½ hours after the onset of symptoms. The stroke warning symptoms are sudden weakness, numbness in one side of the body, sudden trouble speaking or understanding, sudden loss of vision in one eye, sudden imbalance, sudden headache and loss of consciousness. If any of you experience the above symptoms please call the stroke hotline numbers 7508100222, 7508100111.