Manipal Hospitals organized free heart screening for as many as 10,775 people on the occasion of ‘World Heart Day’. The mega event has entered the prestigious ‘India/Asia Book of Records’ as the largest heart screening event by a hospital chain on a single day.

The campaign is an attempt to inculcate healthy lifestyle in people and encourage them to adopt preventive measures. Present on the historic occasion to handover the award to Manipal Hospitals was Dinesh Gundu Rao MLA, who congratulated Manipal for the noble gesture and said “It is definitely a massive campaign which has seen overwhelming response of the people who are part of this success. This only proves the fact that if you take care of yourself your heart will take care of you”.

The screening was conducted across Manipal Hospitals units in Bengaluru, Goa, Jaipur, Salem, Vijayawada, Vishakhapatnam and Mangalore. There was total participation of 10, 775 people across different age and gender visiting the camps and taking a pledge to keep their heart healthy. The event also had expert talks by Cardiac Specialist, interaction with doctors to address general queries, free blood pressure and BMI checkups.

“We want people to mark this day in their calendars for regular heart checkups. The phenomenal turn out across units highlights the fact that people don’t mind treading a few miles extra to save their hearts," said Dr Sudarshan Ballal medical director, Medical Advisory Board, Manipal Health Enterprises.

“Heart ailment related facts are both alarming and disturbing.  People between 30 and 50 years die every minute in India due to cardiac arrest. Habits like smoking and drinking must be cut down to lower the risk of stroke as they apart from unhealthy eating are the prime culprits for stroke. Today, we are happy to bring about preventive awareness among people through free screening,” said Dr Devanand, chairman, cardiovascular and thoracic surgery, Manipal Heart Institute (MHI), HOD & Consultant–Cardiothoracic & Vascular Surgery, Manipal Hospitals–Bengaluru.

Manipal Hospitals has excelled across all the verticals of healthcare and cardiology is no exception. Equipped with a team of expert cardiologists and facility, hospital is well prepared to perform all kinds of heart related surgeries like open heart surgery, angiographies, angioplasties, paediatric cardiac surgery with ease and finesse.

Awareness and healthy life style is the key to stay away from strokes. Regular heart checkups can curtail the risk substantially. Regulation of cholesterol level is imperative to avoid chances of stroke. If the statistics have to be believed prevalence of heart failure in India due to coronary heart disease, hypertension, obesity, diabetes and rheumatic heart disease ranges from anywhere between 1.3 to 4.6 million, with an annual incidence of 491,600 to 1.8 million.

The ECG equipment for the event was supported by BPL Lifephone Plus, a unique hand held Cardio Diabetic wellness monitoring device. The device helps in tracking health status and is also useful for patients who have undergone cardiac procedures.