The Hindu : 'Stroke more harmful than heart attack'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Feb 15, 2004

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National

'Stroke more harmful than heart attack'

By Our Staff Reporter

J. P. Mohr, Director of the Doris and Stanley Tananbaum Stroke Centre Neurological Institute in New York (left), seen with Venu Srinivasan, chairman, TVS Motors, at the 24th T.S. Srinivasan Endowment Oration in Chennai on Saturday. — Photo: Vino John

CHENNAI, FEB. 14. The damage caused by a stroke to the body is more harmful than that caused by a heart attack, J.P. Mohr, Director of the Doris and Stanley Tananbaum Stroke Centre Neurological Institute in New York, said here today.

In fact, the disability caused by the stroke can even make a person seem like a `living dead,' said Prof. Mohr, delivering the 24th T.S. Srinivasan endowment oration, organised by the T.S.Srinivasan Institute of Neurological Science and Research (TSSINSR), on `The Problem of Stroke in Our Community.' "Many of them are never able to return to functional normality."

Unfortunately, most individuals do not pay much attention to the symptoms of the stroke, even though it is the third most commonly occurring lifestyle disease after heart attack. As a result, most patients do not make it to the hospital within the first three hours of the attack when the extent of damage could be reversed, he said. The warning signs of stroke include difficulty with speech, sudden weakness or numbness on one side of the body and loss of vision. In the United States, more than eight lakh heart attacks and two lakh strokes were recorded every year, he said.

Venu Srinivasan, Chairman, TVS Motors, expressed concern that stroke was becoming a public health problem in India. He presented a scroll and memento to Prof. Mohr.

As Asia with its large population is likely to contribute more to the global impact of stroke than any other region in the world in the coming decade, an international workshop on stroke and its prevention is being held in Chennai up to February 17, said Krishnamoorthy Srinivas, chairman, TSSINSR .

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