Bengaluru, December 21, 2020: To salute the COVID warriors, Columbia Asia Hospitals joined hands with Veruschka Pandey and Ashish Dubey to organise an exclusive jam session recently. This music therapy was organised over zoom platform. The duo Veruschka Pandey and Ashish Dubey thrilled the audience with the mix of English, Hindi and Kannada songs.

The one-hour long jam session was started with the popular hit songs from the Hollywood, Bollywood and Sandalwood industries. Christmas carols added a festive spirit to the event and popular songs like “My heart will go on” was refreshing and reenergized the audience. The performance was brought to a close with a final song,“Last Christmas”.

Veruschka Pandey, a student studying inThe International School Bangalore is a poet in making and blogger. An avid reader, she loves to pen down her emotions in the form of words which takes the shape of a poetry. It is not only writing poetry, Veruschka also loves to sing and she has bagged many awards for her voice.

Ashish Dubey, the winner of “most promising vocalist of the year 2019” award by World Humanitarian Summit is known for a remarkable mash-up of Hindi and English songs. He is winning the hearts of his fans through his youtube channel and also performs in prestigious platforms. His debut music album was adopted by the Govt. Education Department and released by Women & Children Welfare Department.

Over the last few months, during the tough phase of COVID 19 pandemic, healthcare workers have stood strong as the frontline warriors, being fearless and persistent. This event was hosted to acknowledge the persistent support of the frontline warriors and the other COVID heroes.

Now that the year 2020 is soon coming to an end & a New Year 2021 is just round the corner, in order bring new hope among the healthcare workers and patients, Columbia Asia Hospitals has also announced #HopeHeals campaign. Through this campaign inspiring stories from the hospitals will be unveiled.

Earlier Columbia Asia Hospital had launched a three-month long “Gratitude Campaign” to thank all the COVID Warriors of the hospital for their dedication and commitment against the COVID 19 fight.To support and encourage all their staff, the hospital has taken many initiatives, apart from providing COVID insurance to all employees on roll, special financial allowances and a personalised thank you letter from the CEO to the COVID Warriors families. Along with these initiatives, the hospital has also created special quarantine centres for staff who had travelled from outstations and reported back to work and provides complete care to the staff who were infected by the virus.

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Bengaluru: In a very inspiring situation, a 49-year-old brain dead patient has given a new life to 5 people by donating her organs. Manjula (name changed) who met with an accident on December 13, 2020 breathed her last in Columbia Asia Hospital Hebbal on December 15, 2020. Immediately her family came forward to donate her organs which helped in saving the life of 5 people.

Manjula hailing from Yelahanka met with a road accident on December 13 near the Bangalore airport. She was immediately taken to a nearby hospital for treatment and was later referred to Columbia Asia Hospital Hebbal for further treatment.

When the patient was brought to Columbia Asia Hospital Hebbal, doctors immediately examined her and realised that she had traumatic brain injury. Patient was unresponsive, her blood pressure was low and there was no brain activity. She was immediately put on ventilator. However, due to the severity of her brain injury she could not be saved.

Understanding the situation, immediately her family members came forward to donate her organs. This cadaver organ donation was performed in association with Jeevasarthakathe, the State’s nodal agency that facilitates cadaver organ donations. The organs were sent to different hospitals in the city. Liver was sent to BGS Hospital, left kidney was sent to Apollo Hospital, Right kidney was used for a patient in Columbia Asia Hospital Hebbal, Heart to Jayadeva Hospital and Eyes were sent to Narayana Nethralaya.

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Epilepsy, a neurological problem that affects people of all age group is the 4^th largest chronic disorder globally. Characterized by unpredictable seizures, this can affect the day today life of a person leading to other health problems. With various kind of seizure types, epilepsy varies from person to person. The stigma associated with epilepsy and the lack of awareness among general public has mostly delayed the diagnosis and treatment to manage the condition.

According to a report by WHO, over 50 million people worldwide have epilepsy, making it one of the most common neurological diseases globally. Nearly 80% of people with epilepsy live in low- and middle-income countries and it is estimated that 70% of people living with epilepsy could live seizure- free if diagnosed early and treated.

Educating people about the symptoms  is important:

Epilepsy is not contagious. Although fits and seizures are direct symptoms of this, it is difficult to diagnose people suffering from complex partial seizures. The social stigma is another factor which delays the treatment for the problem. Hence creating awareness and educating people about the symptoms of epilepsy is important.

The mental complexities due to epilepsy, seizures, continuous medications, sexual orientation, anxiety can force an epileptic patient to lose self-esteem, enthusiasm and fall into depression thus impacting the quality of life. Also, the misconception associated with the condition can make people disengage themselves from the family and social life leading to severe health issues.

Causes for Epilepsy:

This problem  can start at any age, but mostly begins during childhood. There is no specific reason for developing this condition, however, in some cases which occurs later in the life are associated with damage to the brain. Following are the few conditions which can lead to epilepsy.

• Severe head injury
• Cerebrovascular disease
• Brain tumors
• Hereditary

 Signs and symptoms

The main symptoms of epilepsy is repeated seizures. It can occur when you are awake or asleep.  Below are the other signs and symptoms:

• Uncontrolled jerking movements of the arms and legs
• Confusion
• Loss of awareness and consciousness
• Blank stare
• Loss of bladder or bowel control
• Frothing from the mouth

Depending on the type of seizure, the symptoms vary from person to person. Some of the triggering factors of an epileptic seizure are:

• Fever or illness
• Lack of sleep
• Stress
• Flashing and bright lights
• Drugs, medicine, alcohol and caffeine
• Low blood sugar

As identifying the triggers for seizures is not easy and also the fact that multiple factors can trigger seizures, doctors recommend maintaining a ‘seizure journal’.

How can untreated epilepsy affect life?

In most cases, individuals with epilepsy who do not have any other neurological disorders, continue to be normal except for the brief time of seizure. After experiencing seizure which lasts for a few minutes, the individual comes may back to normalcy and avoid visiting the doctor. As it is hard to predict the occurrence of these seizures, it may affect a person’s normal life.

What if the next time you get seizures when you are in the middle of an important meeting at the office or while partying with your friends or driving on a highway or while crossing a busy traffic junction? Ignoring epilepsy can be dangerous. Sadly, some people even today look at epilepsy as a contagious disease and a demonic possession and resort to discrimination.

Prevention

Epilepsy is not usually a complex condition to treat. Seizures can be controlled and with the appropriate use of anti-seizure medications and treatment. It is estimated that nearly one-fourth of epilepsy cases are preventable. Follow these tips.

• Have uninterrupted sleep of 6-8 hours every day.
• Set a sleep schedule and stick to it.
• Beat the stress with relaxation techniques and meditation.
• Stay away from bright flashy lights, video games and other visual stimuli.
• Be active and follow a healthy diet plan

New cases of epilepsy caused by birth injury can be reduced if adequate perinatal care is taken. If you suspect you had a seizure, do not neglect it, consult your doctor at the earliest.

Dr. Vishakhadatta Mathur Kumaraswamy
Consultant- Neurology
Columbia Asia Hospital Sarjapur Road

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Dementia is a condition that is caused by injuries to the brain or any disease that affects various functions of the brain, including memory. It is also identified by symptoms that affect the daily activities of an individual and a disability/difficulty in communicating. Alzheimer disease starts with mild symptoms that can be recognized years before it progresses to an extreme level leading to dementia. However, early diagnosis and treatment may help slow the progression. A comprehensive evaluation is especially important in excluding reversible conditions that appear similar to Alzheimer’s. Patients suffering from Alzheimer’s disease begin to notice difficulty in their normal day-today behavioural and mental activities. Some of the symptoms that point toward Alzheimer’s disease are as follows:

• Forgetfulness
• Difficulty in understanding, remembering, recalling
• Misplacing belongings
• Inability to take decisions
• Inability in recognizing familiar things, routes and objects
• Difficulty in finding the right words to speak, repeating conversations
• Changes in personality, mood swings, obsessiveness, compulsiveness, social withdrawal, etc.

The early diagnosis of a person suffering from Alzheimer’s is facilitated by recognizing the above mentioned symptoms. There are no readily available tests that can confirm the condition; however, the doctor will check to see if the neurological functioning is impaired due to other reasons, by way of blood or urine tests, a CT scan, MRI test, etc. Memory tests are carried out to determine the stage of the condition.

Alzheimer’s is a condition that arises due to brain cells being damaged. This damage cannot be reversed; it can only be treated so that the pace of progression of damage is reduced. Therapy plays an important part in the treatment for Alzheimer’s disease. Interaction with people, day care and nursing programs, light activities and keeping track of any other problems those seem to be arising as a result of Alzheimer’s helps in keeping the condition in check. In addition to this, there are other drugs that aid in easing this process of treatment.

People with initial symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease will find it hard to recognize or accept the condition, and it is often their family and loved ones who notice such problems at first. Medical assistance should be sought at the earliest. Early diagnosis and effective treatment helps in ruling out treatable/ reversible conditions that mimic Alzheimer’s, as well as slowing the progression of the disease and ensuring an improved quality of life for patients once the diagnosis is confirmed. Drugs that help in maintaining acetylcholine neurotransmitter levels in the brain are useful in these patients. Depending on the patient’s condition, antidepressants and/ or anti-anxiety medications may also be required. The proper course of medication can be decided after a thorough clinical evaluation and appropriate testing are completed. A significant part of treatment is also focused on assisting the patient’s loved ones cope with the process of caring for their affected family member. There is a lot of cutting edge research happening in this field right now, and we are very hopeful of discovering better ways to treat this condition, and perhaps even cure it in the near future.

Dr. Vishakhadatta Mathur Kumaraswamy
MBBS, DM
Consultant – Neurology
Columbia Asia Hospital
Whitefield
Bengaluru – 560066
Ph: 080 6165 6666

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