On the occasion of ‘World Heart Day’, in an effort to teach basic life support skills to patient attendants and citizens, CK Birla Hospitals – BMB has launched ‘Hands of Hope’ campaign.

The campaign with a tagline ‘Your heart, my heart...#handsofhope’ aiming to provide a platform for heart patients and the mass to get connected with the experts of this field who could help them with all-rounded guidance regarding basic life support training.

This weekly training will walk the participants through the procedures of CPR with a thorough follow up basic life support drill. Post training, every participant will receive certificates and batches.

Dr Simmardeep Gill, COO, CK Birla Hospitals said, “Quite a number of people who suffer cardiac arrest die before reaching a hospital. Starting effective BLS within two minutes can increase the chance of survival. Our comprehensive BLS training Hands of Hope aims at educating every participant on how to deal with cardiac arrest during the golden hour. We believe in making long-term positive difference in our patient’s lives and this training is custom-made to do just that. This world heart day we will focus on supporting policies that would promote healthy hearts and invest in heart-healthy workplaces.”

Dr. Anil Mishra, Senior Consultant, CK Birla Hospitals – BMB and Dr. Anjan Siotia, Senior Consultant, CK Birla Hospitals – BMB have also created a special training programme to bring awareness among people from various walks of life. Apart from few hundred patient attendants, they will be giving this training to Kolkata Police, top corporate executives, different community members and non-medical staffs. Striving to make people cognizant of heart diseases and imparting them with the correct BLS skills during cardiac arrest will help in saving lives in times of need.

Dr Anil Mishra commented, “With an upsurge in cardiovascular diseases, the incidence of heart failure is growing at an alarming rate .Unfortunately, due to unavailability of all-inclusive knowledge repository and lack of awareness, many people are unable to help their family members, friends and fellow citizens when sudden cardiac arrests happen. Through this initiative we intend to make people aware about not only the need for immediate medical attention but strengthen them with life-saving BLS skills.”

Dr Anjan Siotia says that “This year on World Heart Day, as part of our mission to ensure heart health equity for all, we want to create a global community of Heart Heroes. Starting from the initiative of Hands of Hope  which will ensure participants  from all walks of life who wishes to  live longer, better, heart-healthy live -  by making a promise  to themselves of  cooking  and eating  more healthily,  exercise more and help them to be more active, to say no to smoking and help our loved ones to stop. Lets take a pledge to make a better tomorrow.”

Presently, cardiovascular ailments have become the major killer disease all over the world with more people dying of heart attacks than of cancers, infectious diseases or respiratory diseases. Unfortunately, half the people who survived heart attacks never suffered from any symptoms before to warn them about the possibility of heart problems. The first time they have a chest pain is when they are having a heart attack. Another important fact to note is that half the people who die of heart attacks die within the first hour. So, time is the essence and it is imperative that a heart attack is diagnosed at the earliest as well as treated promptly. And for the same reason, knowledge of basic life support skills is crucial among citizens, so that all of us can reach out to each other in times of crisis.