Apollo Hospitals Salutes, Honours and Celebrates Stroke Survivors

Chennai 28^th October, 2022: Apollo Speciality Hospitals OMR under the guidance of Dr. Karthikeyan, Interventional Neurologist, organised a special event to honour and celebrate stroke survivors. The event was preceded over by, Prof. Shakir Husain Interventional Neurologist & Stroke Specialist, Mr. Senthil, Comedian/Actor.  This one day event was organised to build awareness on stroke to create and to emphasise on the need for early intervention for quality stroke care.

More than twenty stroke survivors were honoured with awards and mementos for fighting back and recovering seamlessly. Stroke is a major public health problem in India and worldwide. It is one of the leading causes of acquired disability and mortality which results in considerable socioeconomic impact on the patients, their families and the healthcare delivery system. There are two types of stroke including ischemic stroke which is caused due to reduction in blood supply to a part of the brain and Haemorrhagic stroke which is caused due to leakage of blood into a part of the brain.

Nearly eighty percentage of stroke is due to blood clot (ischemic) and 20% is due to bleeding( haemorrhagic),time is the most important factor because every minute 1,90,000 brain cells are lost during stroke, with the recent advances ,when a stroke patient reaches hospital within 24 hours of onset ,symptoms can be reverted back with either clot busting drug or mechanical thrombectomy which is a pin hole procedure, in which a stent retriever is used to remove a clot from the affected blood vessel.

A stroke can happen to anyone, at any time and any age. However, the stroke risk increases with age and after the age of 55, the risk doubles for every decade a person is alive. It is no longer a disease of old age, it is more common in younger age group as recent data suggest stroke will occur one in four individuals above 25 years of age. Around 13 million suffer from stroke every year globally and nearly 10,000 people are affected by stroke in Chennai every year. Covid 19 has increased the incidence of stroke after covid infection it increases the tendency to form clot in individuals who has blood sugar, blood pressure and obese.

Speaking about stroke care Dr. Karthikeyan, Interventional Neurologist, Apollo Speciality Hospital OMR, said, “The emerging stroke treatments are all time dependent. 4.5 hours is the recognized time limit as of now to initiate an intravenous thrombolysis, in an indicated patient. Any SUDDEN neurological symptom should be considered as a stroke warning sign. For example- Sudden vision loss, double vision, dizzy feeling, vertigo-go, instability/swaying while standing or walking, facial deviation or asymmetry, difficulty in swallowing, coughing while taking food, change in voice (nasal tone, hoarseness), weakness of arm or leg, altered or loss of sensation in a part of the body especially on one side of the face or body, sudden shaking of limbs, difficulty in speaking, difficulty in understanding speech, inability to repeat a sentence when asked to do so, difficulty in doing a co-ordinated movement, new onset headache or change in the character of chronic headache etc.”

Awareness about stroke, its symptoms, the importance of time in stroke management, and stroke prevention methods are abysmally low in our community. This event paved the way to create awareness and to hold hands with the stroke survivors who are on road to recovery.