When your heart is healthy, your mind is free

In medical terms the crucial one hour after one gets a Heart Attack, which is usually referred to as ‘Golden Hour’, is considered as a safety zone for people to lead a normal life even after a cardiac arrest says Dr. KS Murthy, chief surgeon and chairman of Innova Hospitals, Tarnaka. Seeking the help of a doctor immediately after the attack would be a positive sign for people to have a healthy life.

The number one killer in the world is Cardiovascular Diseases (CVDs) accounting for 17.3 million deaths per year. Innova Hospitals, since 2008, has been saving lives of many children who suffer from CVDs. Dr Murthy has performed more than 8,000 heart surgeries in children, which is the highest number in the state. Adding to this is 12,000 heart surgeries on babies; one of the largest number in world.

Speaking to CityTab Dr Murthy says, “80 per cent of surgeries that I have performed are for the lower socio-economic people through the Aarogyasri scheme. Hundreds and thousands of children survived after the procedure.” He established the Children’s Heart Hospital after performing surgeries at Apollo Hospital.

“Only four cities in our country namely Delhi, Chennai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad perform a heart transplantation surgery. In Hyderabad it is being performed at Innova Hospitals,” says Dr Murthy. “The most complicated surgery would be when I performed a transplant surgery for a 4-month baby. The donor for this surgery is from a 20 days infant from Maharashtra,” adds the doctor.

Pollution would be a leading cause for a cardiac arrest amongst others. Highlighting this, Innova Hospitals have conducted an awareness camp on World Heart Day. Apart from this, there are other camps, lectures and educational programmes that have been organised in rural areas by the hospital to bring awareness among people about heart health.

“When you inhale impure and polluted air, your walls get clogged resulting in a coronary artery disease. This would disturb your lifestyle once you start getting old. It’s a slow process,” explains Dr Murthy. “All you need to do for preventing from getting a coronary artery disease is to have a clean and healthy environment,” he suggests.

When asked for preventive measures to be taken, Dr Murthy says, “Once you reach 40, it is compulsory that you need to have a heart check-up along with your Blood Pressure and sugar levels. Consuming more salt and not sweating would put you in problems. Hence you need to perform medium kind of exercises at least (youth and aged) to release salt from the body.

“It is equally important that you follow a healthy diet. Consuming foods that contain more fat, along with smoking and drinking would cause great damage to your heart health. Smoking would block your heart vessels and consuming alcohol would spoil your liver gradually,” cautions Dr Murthy.

By Divya Vallabhaneni