New method to treat arrhythmia

Records, All, Science & Technologies, World Opinion

Involves 3D electroanatomical mapping of the heart

For 10 years, 53-year-old Baaskaran Subramaniam suffered from palpitation and dizziness, which made him tense and angry. A family member said he had speech difficulty.

Mr. Baaskaran, a Malaysian resident, was suffering from arrhythmia, irregular rhythm of the heart. With no drugs yet to treat the condition, doctors rely on the conventional method of radiofrequency ablation.

Though accurate, the method exposes patients to irradiation.

Ulhas M. Pandurangi, chief of cardiac electrophysiology and pacing, arrhythmia-heart failure academy, Madras Medical Mission, opted for a new method of 3D electroanatomical mapping of the heart. The method dispensed with fleuroscopy and use of defibrillators.

“In the conventional radiofrequency ablation, we have to insert several catheters. It was like exploring inside the heart blindly. But the new method allows us to make just two incisions in the groin to insert two catheters. On contact, the image of the heart rhythm pattern is visible on the monitor and the physician can guide the catheter towards where the electrical impulse is created,” he explained.

“It is an experience to be able to go into the heart and find the exact place where the electric impulse is created,” he said. The Ensite Precision cardiac mapping system allows for a high level of automation, flexibility and precision that helps cardiologists to effectively diagnose a wide range of arrhythmias.

Dr. Pandurangi said the therapy is curative and the patient does not require medication post-procedure. It also reduces cost for the patient as using defibrillator could set back the patient by ₹7 lakh.

Mr. Baaskaran, who underwent the procedure two days ago, said the treatment cost of ₹4.8 lakh was covered by the insurance company in Malaysia.

During its meeting, the Tamil Nadu Electrophysiology Council had resolved that some of the therapies be covered under the Chief Minister’s Comprehensive Insurance Scheme, Dr. Pandurangi said.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> States> Tamil Nadu / by Special Correspondent / Chennai – June 17th, 2017

Freedom fighter remembered

Amazing Feats, Historical Links, Pre-Independence, Inspiration/ Positive News and Features, Leaders

Tuticorin  :

The 106th death anniversary of freedom fighter R Vanchinathan was observed at several places, including Vanchi Maniyachchi Maniyachchi Junction railway station and Kovilpatti in Tuticorin  district, on Saturday.

The participants demanded the government to set up a memorial for Vanchinathan at Vanchi railway junction and also urged the rail department to erect Vanchi’s statue at the junction. It was at Vanchi Maniyachi junction where Vanchinathan shot dead the British government – appointed – Tirunelveli collector Robert William D’ Escourt Ashe dead, before killing himself on June 17, 1911.

Tuticorin collector N Venkatesh garlanded the photo of Vanchinathan at the railway station and paid homages to it. In his speech, the collector recalled the history of the freedom fighter Vanchi. Vanchi was born to forest officer Regupathi Iyer and Rukmaniammal at Sengottai in Tirunelveli. He joined the freedom movement after hearing public speeches of veteran freedom fighters V O Chidambaram and Subramania Siva, said the collector, while asking students to involve themselves in public life.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News> City News> Chennai News / June 18th, 2017

Forest department shop spices up Secretariat

Business & Economy, Green Initiatives/ Environment, Nature
The spices shop at the State Secretariat. | Photo Credit: B_JOTHI RAMALINGAM
The spices shop at the State Secretariat. | Photo Credit: B_JOTHI RAMALINGAM

New retail outlet sells forest produce sourced from Doddabetta

The Secretariat complex is more than just a cluster of government offices. The nearly 6,000 salaried staff who work there as well as the thousands who visit the offices make the complex a bazaar where a range of products — from vegetables through junk jewellery to snacks — can be bought.

Jostling for space at the Secretariat is a shop whose products are a heady mix — spices and medicinal oils. On a day when the demand for grants of the Tamil Nadu Forest Department was being debated at the Assembly, the department had opened a retail outlet selling produce sourced from the Medicinal Plant Development Area (MPDA) at Doddabetta.

The star attraction at the shop was a set of eleven varieties of spices, such as cloves, black pepper and star anise, packaged in sachets and priced at ₹ 160. “You can also buy them separately,” said S. Ashok, who runs the shop.

Variety of products

The shop also sells eucalyptus oil, lemon grass oil, camphor oil, citriodora oil, teatree oil and many others. The price of these concentrated oils is between ₹ 90 and ₹140 per 50 ml. “You can apply them directly or mix them with other oils,” added Mr. Ashok.

Making a strong pitch for the products, Mr. Ashok said the wintergreen oil that is sold in the shop can relieve arthritis. “If you cannot get relief from this oil, there is nothing else in the world that can cure your arthritis,” said Mr. Ashok. The Forest Department runs a similar outlet at Vandalur too.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> States> Tamil Nadu / by B. Kolappan / Chennai – June 15th, 2017

Total hip replacement surgery performed at Rajapalayam GH

Records, All, Science & Technologies

A first of its kind at a taluk hospital, says Chief Medical Officer

Rajapalayam :

A total hip replacement surgery was performed on a 24-year-old youth, N. Saravanan of Avarampatti, at Rajapalayam Taluk Government Hospital on Thursday.

“This is the first time that a taluk hospital in the State has performed such an advanced surgery, with a costlier implant for the patient,” Chief Medical Officer N. Babuji said.

Mr. Saravanan developed septic arthritis, an infection in the bone, on his right hip joint three years back, and found it difficult to walk.

“When he came to us last month, we decided to conduct a total hip replacement, though we had not done it before at taluk hospitals,” Dr. Babuji said. The surgery was planned under Chief Minister’s Comprehensive Health Insurance Scheme.

“Under the scheme, the patient was eligible only for a cheaper prosthesis that is normally used on aged patients. However, considering the young age of the patient, who needed to have artificial joints of longer life, we went for a costlier prosthesis. The additional cost for the prosthesis was borne by Rajapalayam MLA Thangapandian,” Dr. Babuji said.

A team of medical officers, led by Dr. Babuji, two orthopaedic surgeons, Murali and Jagan, and two anaesthetists, Mariappan and Rajesh Khanna, performed the surgery that lasted for three hours. The patient would be back on his feet within 10 days, he added.

Such an advanced surgery was possible at the taluk-level hospital only because of the availability of two sophisticated equipment – C-arm and digital X-ray machine. “The equipment, each costing ₹10 lakh, were donated by former chairman of Ramco Group Ramasubrahmaneya Rajha two years back,” the CMO said.

Since then, the taluk hospital had been performing hemiarthroplasty surgeries on aged patients of osteoporosis as well as road accident victims. “We have been doing at least four such surgeries every month, thanks to the C-arm and digital X-ray machine,” Dr. Babuji said.

The State Government had proposed to set up a full-fledged orthopaedic ward at the taluk hospital soon. Funds to the tune of ₹1.5 crore for a CT-scan had already been sanctioned. Besides, ₹1.20 crore would be spent to establish a 10-bedded trauma ward, he added.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> States> Tamil Nadu / by S Sundar / June 15th, 2017

‘Institutions are built on ethics, integrity’

Records, All, Science & Technologies
Chairman and Managing Director of Ganga Hospital J.G. Shanmuganathan (third left), Chairman of Odisha Skill Development Authority Subroto Bagchi (third right) and historian Ramachandra Guha (second right) during the Silver Jubilee celebrations of the hospital in Coimbatore on Saturday. S. Siva Saravan | Photo Credit: S. Siva Saravanan
Chairman and Managing Director of Ganga Hospital J.G. Shanmuganathan (third left), Chairman of Odisha Skill Development Authority Subroto Bagchi (third right) and historian Ramachandra Guha (second right) during the Silver Jubilee celebrations of the hospital in Coimbatore on Saturday. S. Siva Saravan | Photo Credit: S. Siva Saravanan

Ganga Medical Centre and Hospitals celebrates silver jubilee

Ethics and integrity must be the two important pillars on which good institutions are to be built, said Subroto Bagchi, Chairman of Odisha Skill Development Authority, at the silver jubilee celebrations of the Ganga Medical Centre and Hospitals Private Limited on Saturday.

Mr. Bagchi said that competence will alone not take an institution to greater heights if lacked integrity. Respect of law and the quality of fair judgment will help institutions to grow in the long run.

Speaking at the event, noted historian Ramachandra Guha said that institutions of quality and integrity are difficult to build.

“Ganga Hospital is the institution where I was restored, rehabilitated and which made my family happy,” said Mr. Guha, recalling his treatment at the hospital following an accident he met with at Kalhatti ghat road while travelling with family in April, 2012. Mr. Guha said that institutions and individuals must hold the theme of patriotism close to heart.

“Patriotism also involves loving and nurturing one’s city and State. The hospital has shown the same regional, state and national level,” he said.

Patient care

S. Rajasekaran, Clinical Director and Head of the Department of Orthopaedics of Ganga Hospital, said that the institution is committed to taking forward its excellence in patient care, research and academics.

S. Raja Sabapathy, chairman of the Department of Plastic, Hand and Reconstructive Microsurgery and Burns, Ganga Hospital and J. Dheenadayalan, senior consultant, Department of Orthopaedics, also spoke.

Founders of the hospital J.G. Shanmuganathan and his wife Kanakavalli Shanmuganathan were present at the function.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Coimbatore / by Staff Reporter / Coimbatore – June 11th, 2017

Ace Parliamentarian Era Sezhiyan dead

Leaders

EraSezhiyanCF09jun2017

A man of integrity and outstanding intellect, he shunned publicity and positions

Veteran Parliamentarian Era Sezhiyan, highly regarded as a Constitutionalist who recommended the abolition of the Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS), died in Vellore on Tuesday. He was 95.

He was living for some years in the Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT) run by G. Viswanathan, his close associate since his DMK days.

Sezhiyan also republished the report of the Shah Commission constituted to go into various kinds of excesses committed during the Emergency under the title ‘Shah Commission Report Lost and Regained’.

He was the younger brother of late Navalar V.R. Nedunchezhian and both of them were the founding members of the DMK. He jointly edited the magazine Manram with his brother. Though Nedunchezhian later joined the AIADMK launched by MGR, Sezhian chose to involve himself in the Janata Party as he was attracted by Jayaprakash Narayan’s political ideals. He also functioned as the president of the Janata party’s Tamil Nadu unit.

“He did not share his brother’s views and stayed away from the Makkal DMK founded by the latter at one point. He also did not take the AIADMK seriously. When I requested him to become the presidium chairman of the MDMK launched by Mr. Vaiko. he politely turned down the offer,” said K. Thirunavukkarasu, historian of the Dravidian movement.

Close to ‘Anna’

Born R. Srinivasan, he changed his name to Sezhiyan on the lines of Dravidian leaders who opted for Tamil names instead of Sanskritised names. He studied in Annamalai University and was very close to DMK founder C.N. Annadurai and DMK leader M. Karunanidhi. In his autobiography Nenjukku Neethi, Mr. Karunanidhi has recalled that both Nedunchezhian and Sezhian walked all the way from their village Vadakandam to attend his marriage.

“He wrote in Anna’s Dravida Nadu magazine in 1937 itself. Anna used to say when everyone seeks his advice on family and political matters, he would look up to Sezhiyan’s counsel,” said Mr. Thirunavukkarasu.

He represented the DMK in the Lok Sabha between 1962 and 1977 and the Janata Party in the Rajya Sabha between 1978 and 1984. As Chairman of Public Accounts Committee (1971-73), he presented a record number of 96 Reports to Parliament.

He lost to Congress candidate and actress Vaijayanthimala in South Madras constituency in the 1984 Lok Sabha polls.

“It was Sezhiyan and Murasoli Maran who prepared a report on the recommendations of Justice Rajamannar on Centre-State relationships,” recalled Mr. Thirunavukkarasu.

Parliament Gallery published by The Hindu in 1964 described him as a brilliant student of mathematics with statistics as special subject who topped the list in the University examinations. He also held a diploma in French.

“As is expected of him by his party, he is at his best whenever the official language question comes up before the House. His 20-minute speech on this subject was punctuated by as many as 25 interruptions, apart from steady hecklings by protagonists of Hindi. With patience and perseverance, he hunts for government circulars and instructions to support his questions aimed at proving that there is a subtle imposition of Hindi on non-Hindi speaking states,” The Hindu had reported.

His speeches in Parliament were published as a book, Parliament for the People.

“Delhi is known to be the graveyard of many empires. Let not… one more graveyard be dug here by this measure,” he said during a debate on the anti-secession Bill.

When a Congress member said, “Many empires in the South also have gone to the grave,” Mr. Sezhiyan retorted, “Any empire not representing the people is bound to go that way.”

He shunned publicity and positions. “He refused the offer made by the then Union Finance Minister H.M. Patil to become the chairman of the Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) in 1978. He also turned down the offers of Governor’s post offered during the National Front government led by V.P. Singh,” said Mr. Thirunavukkarasu.

His last association with a political party was Lok Shakthi founded by Ramakrishna Hegde. In 2001, Sezhiyan retired from active party politics.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> States> Tamil Nadu / by B. Kolappan / Chennai – June 06th, 2017