Brain stroke was causing a death every 10 seconds somewhere in the world. This alarming statistic was revealed by Ramesh Hospitals Chief Neurologist S. Kumaravelu. Addressing a meeting on the occasion of the World Stoke Day at the ‘Ram Kastury Stroke Centre’ he said that brain stroke caused 60 lakh deaths all over the world last year.
He said six lakh people were affected by stroke in India and 1.5 lakh people in Andhra Pradesh.
He said the acronym FAST was coined to help quick recognition of brain stroke. Persons who had a stroke suffer face drooping (F), arm weakness (A) or speech difficulty and the time (T) taken to move the victim to a stroke unit was very important. Brain cells (neurones) once destroyed could not be regenerated like other cell in the body. In case of a stroke neurons were destroyed at the rate of 32,000 cells per second. At this rate the number of cells destroyed in a minute was 19 lakhs. When a stroke occurred 1.2 billion neurons were usually destroyed. So time was of the essence and the patient should therefore be rushed to the stroke unit at the earliest, Dr Kumaravelu said.
Management consultant M.C. Das, woman social worker Radha Nitoor, physicians and specialists of the unit Vasundra Devi, I. Nalini Prasad, Bhaskara Naidu, Raja Ram Mohan, Sudharshan, Rama Chandra Rao, PRO J. Rajasekhar, stroke victims and their relatives participated in the awareness programme.
