– Dr. Mathew Cherian, Head of Dept. Radiology, KMCH
Kovai Medical Centre and Hospital (KMCH) organized an awareness session on stroke, its prevalence, risk factors, increasing incidence in youth and women, treatment options etc on 27.11.2019. The session was led by Dr. Mathew Cherian, Head of Dept. Radiology, KMCH, Coimbatore. He was joined by Dr. Pankaj Mehta, Consultant, Radio-diagnosis and Interventional Radiology, KMCH and their team members
Stating that physical exercise is becoming low among today’s society, especially among youth, Dr.Mathew said “We are the most sedentary people in the world”. He said poor quality of sleep, junk food, stress and lack of physical activity is bringing the health quality of our youth down and making them prone to disease.
He said women are protected from encountering stroke by a hormone called Estrogen that secretes in their body. When women remove their uterus, the estrogen secretion becomes absent, making them vulnerable to stroke.
Talking about the advanced facilities available in KMCH to treat Stroke, he said “all the equipment and experts in KMCH are on par with European hospitals. Only the doctors and patients are Indian”.
Just to have a glimpse of how effective stroke is treated at KMCH, a 42 year old stroke survivor, Mr.Pushparaj from Sulur who was treated by Dr.Mathew attended this briefing. In the recent past, Pushparaj was brought to KMCH-Sulur first after he had sudden vomiting and giddiness. His family members found that the left-side of his face had been disabled and his hands and legs had paralyzed.
He then was taken to KMCH Coimbatore where the doctors led by Dr. Mathew Cherian found he has suffered stroke and after analysis, they performed Mechanical Thrombectomy and relieved Pushparaj from stroke. He is able to walk, move his arms freely without any trouble. He displayed his health at the briefing and he even gave a thumbs-up when a group picture was taken with the doctor at the event.
Dr.Mathew said Pushparaj was brought to the hospital in half hour and that he had big blocks in his head which demanded the use of Mechanical Thrombectomy procedure while for smaller blocks Thrombolysis injection could do the magic; but for any treatment to be effective, the patient needs to be taken to a stroke-ready hospital and should be brought immediately after stroke hits them.
“Our team has many years of experience in treating stroke. I have 30 years, Dr.Pankaj has 30 years, Dr.Sriram and Dr.P.Santhosh have 5 years of experience each. The infrastructure here is state of the art. We have an anesthetist here in the unit who will be available 24/7 and there are 3 junior doctors who live in the hospital as they are pursuing their medical specialty course”, said Dr. Mathew.
He said KMCH has a dedicated Stroke Unit Ambulance which is a marvel due to the excellent stroke treatment options it has in its arsenal. The ambulance is staffed with a nurse, paramedic, emergency personnel and CT technologist. The unit also contains lab testing equipment and a CT Scan Machine which can diagnose any type of stroke. Thrombolysis is also kept available to treat stroke. When the patient needs mechanical thrombectomy procedure, the CT Scan is taken and the results are shared with the doctors. This cuts the time it takes normally when a patient reaches via usual ambulance.