Heart Attacks, the Hidden Epidemic – How to handle them

‘Heart Attacks, the Hidden Epidemic- How do we handle them’

This anxious query has occurred to all of us, at some time or the other, especially now during these uncertain times of COVID-19.

With this in mind, and to equip citizens with knowledge and skills to handle emergencies, V Citizens Action Network (VCAN) decided to expand their Social Sanchars with a new series on ‘Health and Wellbeing’, featuring leading Doctors and Healthcare Professionals as Speakers and enabling citizens interaction with them.

On 13th October 2020, the first session of VCAN’s new fully-digital Social Sanchar v2.0 series on Health and Wellbeing, was launched featuring eminent Interventional Cardiologist Dr. Dev B. Pahlajani, Head of Department Cardiology Breach Candy Hospital, Mumbai, who spoke on the topic Heart Attacks, the ‘Hidden Epidemic – How to handle them’.

The session was broadcast live on Facebook and YouTube, and was joined by many college students and viewers across the city, and around the globe.

Smt. Indrani Malkani, Chairman & Managing Trustee of VCAN, started the Social Sanchar with a welcome address. She gave a brief introduction about VCAN and announced the launch of a new series of the Social Sanchar ‘Health and Wellbeing’.

She hoped this series will receive the same positive feedback as VCAN’s regular Social Sanchar programmes, which will also continue.

She expressed her appreciative thanks to Team Teknowlegion for powering the fully digital Social Sanchars and for always being vigilant and keeping VCAN’s Web portal active. She thanked VCAN’s social media consultant Mr. Sumit Lulla, and specially thanked the Student Council and the Students of VCAN’s College Partner Jai Hind College and all the other *Colleges who have associated with VCAN, as well as all the viewers, colleagues and networking partners and friends in the media.

To see the list of *colleges,  click here

She then invited her fellow Trustee Shri. V. Ranganathan to introduce Dr. Dev Pahlajani. After introducing the speaker, Shri. Ranganathan emphasised the importance of this Social Sanchar series and the inaugural session and also cited some issues of concern which could be addressed at the session.

Brief Profile of Dr. Dev B. Pahlajani

Dr. Dev B. Pahlajani

Interventional Cardiologist,

Head Department of Cardiology, Breach Candy Hospital

Formerly Hon. Prof. of Cardiology Lokmanya Tilak Municipal Medical College, Sion, Mumbai. He was the Past President Cardiological Society of India and Past President Association of Physicians of India, as was the Founder Chairman Academy of Cardiology at Mumbai.

He has trained several students in the field of Cardiologist.

He has received numerous awards, such as Lifetime Achievement Award by Cardiology Society of India and also Lifetime Achievement Award by the Association of Physicians of India

Smt. Malkani then invited Dr. Pahlajani for his opening remarks keeping the current situation in mind and the problems associated with heart attacks, to specially enlighten all on;

• how we can handle heart attacks and heart failure
• how to know when a person in our family is vulnerable
• how we can handle such emergency situations ourselves, till help arrives
• how can a housing society Managing Committee deal with emergency situations faced by their vulnerable members

Dr. Dev Pahlajani, started his talk by giving the viewers a basic understanding of what is a heart attack, how and why it occurs, etc. He added that a heart attack is the leading cause of deaths all over the world, around ⅓ of the deaths occur due to heart failure.  Many factors can cause cardiovascular illness, but the type of lifestyle that an individual lead is one of the dominant factors. One of the biggest contributors to these statistics is a lack of commitment to a heart-healthy lifestyle, and taking the responsibility for one’s body.  He explained the statistics and made the viewers aware of the death rates all over the world due to heart attacks. He highlighted the scientific reasons by sharing the real-life-experience of a patient and explained how to save one’s life without panicking. He emphasized on the importance of the golden hours to save the patient’s life, it’s that time where a person’s death is near but can be far away also, if accurate measures are taken.

The viewers were briefly taken through the entire procedure from cardiac catheterization to primary angioplasty. The procedures were explained in simple terms to make it easier for the viewers to understand. He explained that a key problem is the negligence of patients towards their body’s reaction and the ignorance towards the symptoms of a heart attack. He suggested that the patients seek immediate medical help.

He concluded by speaking about the changing lifestyle in this pandemic, and the risk associated with it. He mentioned that physical activity has reduced and thus stress levels have increased in this situation, leading to a higher risk of heart diseases.

Dr. Pahlajani further explained that bad dietary habits such as a high intake of cholesterol can lead to blockage of arteries and in turn lead to heart failure. Therefore, one must monitor one’s dietary habits and try to exercise as much as possible.

Click here to view the PDF version of the Presentation of Dr. Pahlajani

The opening remarks by Dr. Dev Pahlajani were detailed and answers to many questions were addressed, please see the Video to get a comprehensive understanding.

The Q&A starts at 41:21 minutes click here

At the end of the exhaustive question-answer session, Smt. Malkani and Shri. Ranganathan thanked Dr. Pahlajani for his clear and informative response. A lot of questions about heart ailments and their treatment were answered transparently.

Smt. Malkani informed the viewers that questions that could not be answered despite the extension of the session, will be sent to Dr. Pahlajani and the answers will be later published with a link in the Report on VCAN’s web portal.

With this, Smt. Malkani closed the session, affirming that there was much work needed and that VCAN will take it forward.

An online memento of appreciation on behalf of VCAN was presented by Smt. Malkani to Dr. Pahlajani

Smt. Malkani then thanked VCAN’s trustees and the viewers for joining the session and ended the digital Social Sanchar.

To view the video of the event, click here

To view the press coverage by the Mid-Day, click here

To view the PPT** of Dr. Dev Pahlajani, click here

**Please be advised, the information in the presentation was prepared by Dr. Dev Pahlajani, Interventional Cardiologist, Head Department of Cardiology, Breach Candy Hospital, Mumbai India, and was presented at the TogetherVCAN’s Social Sanchar held on 13th October 2020.
All Rights are reserved with the Author and due acknowledgement is to be given to the Author should this presentation in part or in full be used by anyone anywhere. The contents of the slideshow presentation are by the Author and not by VCAN.
The presentation file is lengthy, therefore please wait for it to be fully downloaded before clicking on individual slides. It is advisable to use Google Chrome to download the presentation.