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| Friday, 28 February 2003 |
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Features | |
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Doctors decide on Engonona as Chief Guest Sri Lanka's oldest living centenarian, 115 year old poor & poorly educated Orathalange Engonona from Mihiripenne,Galle will be the Chief Guest at an important medical function at Taj Samudra Hotel in Colombo this Sunday.
This decision was taken last week by Professor Herbert A. Aponso (Emeritus Professor of Paediatrics University of Peradeniya) at a discussion held with several other medical specialists in planning out the programme for the launching of the third edition of the Guide to Health & Nutrition "Your Child Your Family" authored by Prof. Aponso, Prof. Harendra de Silva (Professor of Paediatrics University of Kelaniya and Dr. Dennis J. Aloysius a leading Family Physician and visiting Lecturer, Post Graguate Institute of Medicine (PGIM). At this function to be attended by a distinguished gathering of Professionals, leading citizens in society, and a few Ministers among others. The question had come up as to who should be invited as the chief guest.
At the ensuing discussion all had agreed that non other fitted into the role better than Prof. Colvin Gooneratne, Centenarian Study Team's find O. T. Engonona, as she happens to be not only the so far known leading lady in Sri Lanka in age, but also the second living leading citizen in age in the world. A member of the Centenarian Study Team who had made the suggestion to invite Engonona for this function as a special guest, had mentioned the fact that being poorly educated and poor lady living in a hut she represents the human society at its broadest, and with her remarkable achievement in living, she has become the most precious living human jewel in society, and that it is the bounden duty of the medical profession, whose work is dealing with human life to pay the highest respect and honour to human life by honouring this lady at a function such as this. Thus setting the example to society that Centurions are there to be honoured recognised and praised not only in cricket but more so in human life.
Last year the OPA honoured Engonona at its annual sessions held at BMICH by inviting her as a special guest of honour. OPA's current head Architect, V. N. C. Gunasekera played a key role in this. Later in the year Prof. Anton Jayasuriya's medicina alternativa also honoured Engonona by inviting her as a special guest of honour at its annual international symposium held at Mt. Lavinia hotel. Prof. Colvin Goonaratna and the Centenarian Friendship Association
headed by him are making arrangements to get the country's living
centenarians led by Engonona to offer flowers at the Sacred Tooth Relic at
Dalada Maligawa in Kandy in March and invoke blessings of the Triple Gem
for peace, unity and prosperity of the country and the whole world. -------------------------------------------------------
B. Samarasinghe (Chartered Physiotherapist) in an article specially written to the Health Watch on working at the Visual Display Units (Computers) warn of the health risks involved, unless one adopts the correct posture. Mr. Samarasinghe who is working in Colombo says that daily he sees many young people who are affected with computer associated health problems mainly due to the incorrect postures they are adopting when working with the units. Mr. Samarasinghe in several instances had visited the working places of these young people and advised the Managements concerned to get the correct working tables and chairs for the VDU staff. In all these instances the managements had been very grateful to Mr. Samarasinghe for the advice given. According to Mr. Samarasinghe in most of the instances the VDU staff is to blame for their VDU related health problems, because, they had been sitting at it the wrong way and adopting the wrong posture. Mr. Samarasinghe said, he felt that a large number of companies now
working with VDUs what is needed is some sort of knowledge dissemination
to the people on this subject, and he felt Health Watch is one of the best
in the English media as it has become very popular over the past two years
both with the medical profession and the English reading public. ----------------------------------------------
by Dr Mandeep S Dhillon, Senior Consultant, Orthopaedics, Apollo Hospitals, Colombo Since the time that man evolved into the standing posture from the four-legged one, backache has been the bane of a large percentage of the adult population. This is often of the dull persisting type and in the last 6 weeks of my time in Sri Lanka, this seems to be the predominant problem encountered in orthopaedic populations. In spite of a better understanding of the causative factors of back pain by professional healthcare providers, the layperson still has a host of misconceptions that may interfere in the appropriate preventive and therapeutic measures. Myth 1: People in sitting or sedentary occupations get less back problems that those who lift things. A lot of people think that sitting is easier on their backs than standing or lifting. This is definitely not true, and perhaps even the converse may be possible. People whose jobs require them to sit for long periods of time suffer as much from back pain as people who lift all day long. It is believed by researchers all over the world that the huge increase in back pain over the past couple of decades has a lot to do with the fact that more and more of us are spending our work days in chairs. This posture is abnormal for us, and by sitting for prolonged periods, we keep our spine in an abnormal posture, thus straining it. Dr. Alexander Magora published an interesting study in the Journal of Industrial Medicine entitled "Investigation of the Relation Between Low Back Pain and Occupation"; this American researcher showed some rather surprising findings, that laid to rest a few myths prevalent prior to this. Rather than trying to link back pain with a specific cause - like a fall or a poor lifting technique - Dr. Magora studied the occupations of more than 3,300 people. He was interested to know how much of their work day people spent doing three particular kinds of tasks: tasks that required them to sit; tasks that required them to stand; and tasks that required them to lift. The people who were studied were divided into three categories for the purpose of analysis. In the case of sitting and standing, three grades were made- "Often" meant that a person sat for more than 4 hours each working day; "sometimes" meant between two and four hours each day; and "rarely or never" meant that a person sat for less than two hours a day. The results were very interesting, especially when it came to sitting; hardly any of the back pain sufferers in Dr. Magora's study (3.5%) had jobs that required them to sit "sometimes". On the other hand, more than half of the back pain sufferers sat "rarely, or never" (54%). And a little less than half of them had jobs which required them to sit "often" (42%). "Both too much sitting, and too little sitting," Dr. Magora concluded, "seems to be related to low back pain." To put it simply, people are far less likely to suffer from a bad back if their jobs require them to do a variety of tasks - some sitting, some standing, some lifting - during the course of the work day. This put paid to one of the most prevalent myths about backache, i.e. sedentary people have less problems than those who lift heavy weights. Since the 1970s, it has now been realized that the weakening of muscles associated with lack of exercise maybe the principal cause of backache. Many of us could change our work habits, if we made it a priority in our own minds. For instance, if you have three hours of a desk job and two hours of things like filing, or something that needs to be done in a standing position, it is ideal to divide it up into 20 minute chunks so that different muscles work at different times. The same applies for other professions, especially with the advent of computers, and people working on these are advised to get up and walk every half an hour. Myth 2: Surgery can be the ultimate cure for backpain Although surgical intervention is anathema to a vast majority of people, many patients (and even some doctors!) have the notion that, if back pain gets bad enough, they can always resort to surgery. Nothing could be further from the truth. The amount of pain someone is in has very little to do with whether or not he or she could benefit from surgery. The indications for surgery are very specific, and cases where well applied methods have been used in appropriate cases are the ones that benefit the most. One British researcher has estimated that for every 10,000 people who experience a bout of back pain, only four need surgery. And yet, one of the most frequently asked questions by back pain sufferers is: "I hope that I will not need surgery" Myth 3: Belts/ corsets should always be used when there is backpain Orthopaedicians today recommend physical activity as the panacea to prevention of backpain as these keep your muscles supple and strong, and avoid unnecessary strains on the ligaments and the discs. Belts and corsets are essential only for two category of patients. Firstly those with acute muscle spasm, who need these "posture support vests" to promote exercise in the healing phase, while supporting back muscles. The second category is the one with chronic degenerative changes, who have episodes of pain interspersed with relief. These patients may benefit by the use of belts for a short time. In the long run however, these will weaken the very muscles that they purport to help, as the muscles become "lazy" and allow the belts to do their job for them! So get rid of that belt as soon as possible, and develop your muscles to do their proper job. --------------------------------------------------- Health Watch Letter Box VIP treatment On my arrival in Brisbane, Australia to cover the Sri Lanka cricket team's tour in December last year, I suddenly developed a temperature which did not leave me for a few days. After being treated by two doctors, the fever still persisted. A couple of days later, with the temperature still persisting, I suddenly started passing blood. With the coming colours not too good, I told my hosts Rathna and daughter Rochelle, that I should enter some hospital as I was really feeling bad. On arrival at he Royal Brisbane Hospital, and after the usual formalities of name, address, profession, age etc, I was taken in and in next to no time I was surrounded by a team of doctors who put me through the process. My wanting to pen these lines, is to tell the people here as to how I was treated - it was as though I was a VIP. On being admitted not once was I asked who is going to pay the bill. Nor was I asked to make a deposit. The doctors inquired as to what my illness was. Drew blood. Did the tests - blood, urine, cholesterol, ECG, X'ray etc. In fact the whole works and in a few minutes told me what exactly was wrong with me. I was startled to hear that I was suffering bleeding gastric ulcers. I then told the doctors, that I am a journalist from Sri Lanka, covering the cricket team's tour. The doctors both male and female too fortunately were cricket fans, and once I told them who I was, made me feel at ease, making me comfortable in every why possible and consoled me saying that I should not be unduly worried and that they would do everything possible to see to my quick recovery and to continue to covering the tour. The next days followed an endoscopy and later ultra sound, more X'rays and blood tests etc. It was only after a couple of days from being admitted and treated that a gentleman from the accounts department of the hospital came to me and inquired as to how or who was going to pay the bill. I told him what exactly should be done. And that was that. Not once did the hospital authorities ask Rathna and Rochelle who took me to hospital, to pay a deposit or whether they would stand as guarantors to pay the bill. In contrast it will be of interest for readers to know the form in Sri Lanka when a patient, serious or otherwise is taken to private hospitals for admission. Here's my experience. Once when I was seriously ill and taken to a hospital - even before the doctors could have a look - my wife was asked to make a deposit of 5,000 rupees, produce the receipt before being treated. To the hospital authorities here money is more important than the life of a human. True, some may default. But you should not tar everyone with the same brush. I must offer my sincere thanks to the Royal Brisbane Hospital, its doctors whose names I have forgotten except for that of Dr. Charles Denero, his nursing staff and the sweet lady doctor who performed the endoscopy, the Malaysian medical technician who did the ultra sound and my first nurse, the effervescent Jezebel who wanted me to always call her Jez. Thanks once again the Royal Brisbane Hospital for everything and the prompt attention is seeing me to good health. The doctors in Brisbane wanted me to do a repeat endoscopy here and doctor M.Z. Badurdeen who performed it at the Grandpass Nursing and Maternity Home confirmed that I had fully recovered from the ulcers and Doctor M.R. Anwer who checked me for my other ailments gave me the all clear. My grateful thanks to them too. - Elmo Rodrigopulle ***** Doctors' obligations towards patients Mrs. Senthiru Velauthupillai, Ponparappi, Puttalam writes: - I was really happy to read in the Health Watch of 7th Feb. 2003, the above article - Doctors obligations towards patients given by the SLMC and on the same page another article on - wisdom of laymen on medical matters. Both these articles are of educative and informative value to the public. I feel the SLMC should come out with more details relating to the subject of doctors abusing the medical profession in some instances like overdoings; overprescribing costly drugs; Earlier investigations were ordered to confirm a diagnosis, now they are just done to excludes all other diseases. I am sure if one were to take a count of all the medical laboratories now found in the country they will surely outnumber the number of doctors in the medical registry. Just think about this, with paramedics in government service yet debarred from private practice, God only knows who works in these labs? How far can we rely on the reports of most of them. It is the same with the pharmacies. Are they all manned by competent and qualified pharmacists? The Channel Consultation practice should be re-organised. Specialists should be allowed to see only referred cases by the G.Ps. The present practice of just anybody just being allowed to see a specialist should be stopped. Under the open-economy medicine has today become a business of patient exploitation of a sort. I may be wrong, but thats what I think, from what I see. How to survive a heart attack when alone Let's say it's 6.15 p.m. and you're driving home, alone of course after an unusually hard day on the job. You're really tired, upset and frustrated.Suddenly you start experiencing severe pain in your chest that starts to radiate out into your arm and up into your jaw. You are only about five miles from the hospital nearest your home; unfortunately you don't know if you'll be able to make it that far. What can you do? You've been trained in CPR but the guy that taught the course neglected to tell you how to perform it on yourself. How to survive a heart attack when alone (Since many people are alone when they suffer a heat attack, this article is in order). Without help, the person whose heart stops beating properly and who begins to feel faint, has only about 10 seconds left before losing consciousness. However, these victims can help themselves by coughing repeatedly and very vigorously. A deep breath should be taken before each cough, and the cough must be deep and prolonged, as when producing sputum from deep inside the chest. A breath and cough must be repeated about every two seconds without let up until help arrives, or until the heart is felt to be beating normally again. Deep breaths get oxygen into the lungs and coughing movements squeeze the heart and keep the blood circulating. The squeezing pressure on the heart also helps it regain normal rhythm. In this way, heart attack victims can get to a phone and, between breaths, call for help. Tell as many other people possible about this, it could save their lives! From Health Cares, Rochester General Hospital AND the beat goes on (reprint from The Mended Heart, Inc. publication, Heart Response). Sent to Health Watch by:- Aruni Rodrigo |
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Produced by Lake House |
Prof. Aponso and the professional group who were meeting had not only
fully endorsed the views expressed by the Centenarian Study Committee but
had decided to go a step further by unanimously agreeing to invite
Engonona as the chief guest at this function placing her above not only
the professional but even the political heads who will be participating at
the function.
