He has been tirelessly making the network of trained Doctors in the suburb to treat condition Brain Stroke for the last 15 years.
Chandigarh
One might have heard of this famous quote, ” SARKARI—MATLAB GAIR-A-SARKARI”. This quote goes fail when it comes to PGIMER’s Department of Neurology and Its Man behind the “Management of Brain Stroke”- A Man who has been running a Helpline for Brain Stroke Patients tirelessly 24/7 for the last 15 years. This Man is PROF. Dr. DHEERAJ KHURANA. Now, he has been able to create the Network of Trained Doctors (Who certainly are not Neurologist), but of Internal Medicine, that can handle the condition of Brain Stroke and if any further treatment is required which has to be done by a Super specialist is required then PGIMER Neurology takes its call.
24 Hour Brain Stroke Helpline : 7087009500
In the same direction that making the public more informed of this problem is a step in preventing it says Dr Khurana. This year Department has been able to increase the stroke treating capability of Chandigarh with sector 16 GMSH becoming stroke ready – they have been treating acute strokes since April 2019 and there is an active collaboration between both hospitals including GMCH 32 on a hub and spoke principle.
Talking further on this, Dr Khurana exerted that this year in addition, the department is formally launching a stroke education program in Government and Private schools and have invited schools to become a part of this campaign as children are a very effective means of educating their own families and the society. By involving school students as a medium to spread awareness in the classroom, we believe we would be reaching a large segment of the population of the city directly or indirectly and we hope to make chandigarh stroke smart in the coming years.
It is week for Brain Stroke Patients with New Theme called “MOVE STRONG AFTER STROKE (MSAS) 2019″ and “#Don’tbetheone”. The world stroke organization theme this year, “1 in 4 of us will have a stroke – Don’t be the one”, carries a strong note of caution and urgency for each and every one of us to understand the dangers associated with the brain stroke. It is always good to know about a disease, but it is best “NOT TO HAVE IT AT ALL”. The Emphasis of this year is also on prevention of a stroke by adopting healthy living and taking care of our risk factors.
There in PGIMER, alone has registered over 600 stroke patients with 340 patients reaching in 24 hour window in this year up to this October 2019. PGI have parallely witnessed a remarkable increase in the number of patients who are able to get treated after reaching the emergency from November 2018 to October 2019. In the last one year 60 patients could get treated with thrombolysis and thrombectomy (interventional treatment) and out of these 50% patients have achieved almost complete recovery – i.e they have been able to achieve a near normal life.
Although Department has been improving in theirs capabilities in providing treatment to a large number of patients as was seen in one of published data (Data published in http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jstrokecerebrovasdis.2017.01.019 “Temporal Trends in Intravenous Thrombolysis in Acute Ischemic Stroke: Experience from a Tertiary Care Center in India”) which showed an increasing trend over a period of 5 years in the treatment rates but now PGIMER is also seeing that they can achieve better results since patients can be offered clot removal with intervention which can completely remove the clot from the brain. The biggest advantage of this treatment (Thrombectomy) is that it can be done even upto 24 hours as compared to the earlier windows of 4.5 hours with the clot dissolving medicine (Actilyse).
The Stroke services, Department of Neurology under the auspices of the PGI Neurological Society is organizing Moving Strong with Stroke(MSAS)- Stroke Week’19 – a stroke awareness campaign on the occasion of the World Stroke Day from 13 – 17th November, 2019.
The stroke services, PGIMER are launching the stroke awareness through schools on 15th November, 2019 at 9:30 am in National Institute of Nursing Education (NINE) auditorium, PGIMER.
STROKE TALK (Patient support group)
Following a stroke, the best possible quality of life is accomplished by increasing cognizance of the fundamental needs of the stroke survivors and the care givers. In this direction, the stroke services would be holding its next session of –“STROKE TALK” which was launched last year during the stroke awareness campaign with the close collaboration of the NINE (National Institute of Nursing Education), PGIMER. Dr. Manju Dandapani will be coordinating from NINE for the support group.
The support group session will comprise of interactions with physicians, dietician, physiotherapist and counsellors and will provide extensive information regarding the modification of life style and risk factors with an emphasis on how to improve life after a stroke.
Mr. Ranjit Pathak (Occupational therapist), Mr. Rajan Chellappa (Physiotherapist) and Dr. Anuradha Sharma (Speech therapist) will be educating the stroke patients with practical tips on moving on after a stroke by various physiotherapeutic measures and exercises.
In a stroke support group, the patients interact with each other and try to learn from each other’s difficulties and will also motivates each other to strive harder despite their disabilities.
The MSAS’19 will also feature street plays by Rangroot Theatre who will be performing at various sites across the city with the aim of improving public awareness.
Stroke not only affects the elderly, young people are also at equal risk which has been keenly observed in data of Indian subcontinent. The Department of Social Welfare under the leadership of Mr. Gaurav Gaur and his team would be carrying out a massive campaign in the PU campus, thereby, specifically targeting youth during the MSAS’19 week.
One of the biggest challenges is to make life after stroke purposeful and useful and this can be achieved by providing dedicated care and support to these patients.