I am a neurosurgeon. I went to medical school at the prestigious JIPMER, Pondicherry and then for neurosurgery residency to NIMHANS, Bangalore. I then went on to do a year of cadaver and clinical research at the LSUHSC at Shreveport, Louisiana followed by a year of Endovascular neurosurgery fellowship at LSUHSC before coming to the University of Miami for the last year of endovascular fellowship. It has been a a long and arduous journey to say the least.
During my fellowship, I had the opportunity to study the stroke management system in place in the United States and compare with that in India. I was appalled to know that strokes (ischemic and hemorrhagic) are more common in India than in the United States. Not only that there are no systems in place to treat stroke in India, the awareness among the people in India including the medical fraternity is lacking. Most people who call themselves educated, have heard about stroke only if one of their family members or friends suffered from it. The common notion of stroke in India is that it is a devastating condition that leads to paralysis of an arm or leg and that makes the person bed ridden. Many superstitions have been floated in the Indian culture that blame the person's sins either in the present life or the previous one, those committed by ancestors, involvement of supernatural beings, the specific configuration of stars and the person's fate as the cause of stroke. This list is by no means comprehensive as there is no end to imagination. I do not agree with any of these theories because their scientific basis is not proven yet.
In my coming posts, I will discuss the current scenario for stroke in India and the various components of a stroke program and how we, as the people of India can fight against one of the top three causes of death in India.
No program is successful without a team effort and I urge everyone interested in joining me in this campaign against stroke
Sudheer Ambekar
Dear Doctor,
ReplyDeleteThis is a great blog !!!! This is the need of the hour. The awareness of stroke among patients in India is next to nothing !!!
There is a strong need to improve quality of life, survival rates and improve outcome of stroke and cut treatment costs for those who are affected by stroke.
In India, Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy by medical community is much under utilized when compared to their counterparts in the western and in the eastern parts of the globe.
Our aim is to educate and provide information about the healing opportunities that you may benefit through Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy and to help stroke survivors to heal and recover from the devastating effects of stroke and other traumatic brain injuries.
http://strokesurvivorindia.blogspot.in