Top Surgeons from the Asia’s top medical facility held a one day consultation for patients suffering from Gastro and Neurology related diseases.

ParkwayHealth, one of Asia’s leading private health-care group sent two of its top surgeons to held free consultations in Pakistan.

The visiting surgeons provided free consultancy to the Neuro and Gastro patients in free sessions held at a local hotel in Karachi.

The consultation was done by Senior Consultant Neurosurgeon Dr. Prem Pillay, who specializes in Computer-Aided/Image-Guided Surgery for Brain Tumors; and Consultant General Surgeon Dr. Melvin Look, specialist in Gastrointestinal Surgery and Minimally Invasive Surgery.

PakwayHealth has organized the consultancy sessions through its Pakistan based Patient Assistance Center where the patients can follow-up on their cases and if necessary can avail the newly launched attractive packages at any of the Parkway Health facility in Singapore.

The recently launched series of fixed price package covers various surgical procedures and includes all costs relating to inpatient care such as hospitalization, nursing care, facility charges and doctor’s fees.

The move is in response to the current economic condition and is aimed at helping patients better manage costs.

The event will enhance the already existing healthcare facilities extended to Pakistani citizens in all key medical areas such as cardiology, ENT Surgery, gastroenterology, general surgery, neurosurgery, obstetrics & gynecology, ophthalmology, orthopedic surgery and urology.

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About ParkwayHealth

ParkwayHealth is one of the leading private healthcare groups based in Singapore, operating 15 hospitals with more than 3,400 beds in Asia, as well as 43 patient assistance centres throughout the world. It has an extensive network across Asia, Europe, North America, and the Middle East with operations in nearly all Asian countries including Pakistan,

With a team of more than 1,300 accredited specialists covering over 40 different specialties, ParkwayHealth is committed to its vision to be a global leader in value-based integrated healthcare.

For more information, please visit the website at: www.parkwayhealth.com

Post credits: Hasan Zuberi

Thalassaemia major is a fatal disease of the blood. Many people go on through their lives while having thalassaemia minor and never knowing about it. When two such individuals produce a child , the child has a very large chance of having Thalassaemia major.

For a Thalassaemia patient to have any chance of survival they need a blood transfusion every 15 days of their life. Currently the demand for blood for these patients is 15000 bottles of blood a month. The blood banks of this city cannnot and do not provide enough blood for these patients and this is why many of them die premature deaths, many times before reaching adulthood.

Kashif Iqbal Thalassaemia Care Centre (KITCC) is all set to launch a blood bank which will cater exclusively to the needs of these patients. A year ago MB from Karachi metroblogs did a post about this organization here.

All of us can give blood once every 3 months, I urge all of you reading this to please if possible provide blood to this organization. Your precious blood will save a persons life through them. I also urge all the bloggers of this forum to take up on Mb’s initiative and spread the message of awareness for this center and disease. It is very important for 2 thalasaemia minor patients not to marry and have children to add to the toll of this disease, for this people are advised to get blood tests done before marriage.

Please note (KITCC) provides blood “FREE OF COST”. i personally will not only be donating blood for this cause but will try to round up as many people as I can to do this. Please help, your help is needed now!!!!

Their contact info is

Kashif Iqbal Thalassaemia Care Center (KITCC) , Becham Road, Laiqabad, Landhi, Karachi – 75120
(+92-21)-8232414 , (+92-21)-4515600 , (+92-21)-5021188 (Fax)
kitcc@gem.net.pk

A few weeks back the much acclaimed ghazal singer Mehdi Hasan fell critically ill and was admitted to Agha Khan Hospital for extensive treatment. Many people shared their passion for this gazal maestro to an extent that a few government dignitaries offered financial assistance to the ailing singer.

It is being reported that the President Asif Zardari and the chief minister of Sindh have provided Rs1 million and Rs250,000, respectively, for the treatment, while a cheque for Rs500,000 that was received from the Punjab government after the then chief minister Shahbaz Sharif visited Mr. Hasan at the hospital could not be cashed due to the imposition of the governor’s rule in the province. In the aftermath of these events, the bounced cheque did go through but during the time being Mehdi Hassan’s son was told to meet with the governor of Punjab [Salman Taseer] to ‘sort out the matter’
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Ever since the first coming of BB in Pakistan the doors to liberalism were thrown wide open and out came a whole lot of demons to our generally conservative society. Among them was the easy availabilty of home distelled liquor or moonshine which is brewed in shuttered garages and small back yard distilleries all across Karachi.

The current Minister of excise and taxation has started to address this problem by raiding several spots in this city where such liquor is openly bought and sold.

The sad part is that these raids are only being conducted for the benefit of the many “red and blue” colored government license shops operating across the city selling official liquor. The question thus is of taxes unpaid on the sale of homegrown liquor and not that this ill is spreading in our society without check.

Even putting aside the religious castration that drinking alcohol is attributed to, drinking home grown liquor can lead to blindness, fits as well as other side effects because the manufactiring is more of a bhatti kind then proper processing. As a city we need to recognize the wide sale of both imported and home grown liquor here and regularize the process rather than letting it operate on a bootleg basis. I regularly see kids and women lining up at a liquor shop near my workplace on the way back, and it chills my heart that people are being sold alcohol without check of age or any other verification.

The sooner we realize that this problem now exists in our society on a wide scale basis the faster we can engage it and try to address it. I appeal to our newly appointed Chief Justice to after coming into office take suo motto action on the unchecked sale of alcohol in Karachi and bring it out in the open.

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As the prophets (pbuh) birthday gets closer, Karachi is lit up in an array of overpowering green and white. The colors of choice for the various religious organizations making plans which last upto 12 days during this holy month.

Chief among them is the “DI” or Dawate Islami which seems to have decided on its own that there is no power crises in this country and that people want to hear naats and cries of “Sarkar ki amad, marhaba” at all hours of the night.

Noise pollution aside, even though they claim to pay for all the lighting they use, i think it is quite safe to say that their over zealous celebrations are turning from a pageant to a nuisance every year.

Perhaps it is their war with the shiates who paint the city black with equal fervor to their green that has gained precendence over true spirit and effort? The emphasis is now more towards outdoing each other then on bettering oneself. In either case its been a total of 72 hours and the naats are not stopping, the lights are not turned off during the day even upto 10am sometimes and it feels like I am being kept in some of sort of concentration camp. Naats and duas are beautiful to listen to when one has the choice to listen to them when they want not whether they want to or not!!!

Sindh government with Local authorities imposed ban on gutka sale and purchase. Even I do not have much information about this ban but yesterday two people were talking in lift in very low voice

Lift Man “Yaar subh say aik hi gutka chala raha hon”
Second Guy “Han yaar gutka sirf black may hi mil raha hay”

A friend [unconfirmed report] told me that rangers are stopping people who are chewing gutka and fine them 5,000 Rs. People who are violating gutka ban also being beaten by rangers as friend told me.

According to a recent report published in Dawn, 500 of the 1,500 water samples collected and tested by the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board were found unfit for human consumption.

Anyone who can afford now drinks bottled water. The rest make do with boiling the murky water. I think it is about time KW&SB should start charging commission to the multinational companies who sell the bottled water. Had they been doing their job properly and supplying clean water to the residents of this city, the multinationals would not have been doing such a roaring business.

A very small news item caught my attention today.

Daily Dawn reported that the body of a newborn baby was found in a drain in the limits of the Kalri police station on Friday.

A relief association volunteer told Dawn that the child was given ablution and buried in the Mewashah graveyard after conducting legal formalities. Since no post-mortem examination was conducted, it was left undetermined how and when the baby boy had died.

While all Pakistanis are busy denouncing Israeli aggression in Gaza and the continued murders of men and women, its about time we take stock of what is happening in our own backyard. We may not be able to do much for the children that are dying in Gaza but can’t we do something about those who are dying right here, in our own communities for various reasons.

Since I was born and raised abroad and after having lived there most of my adult life, I’ve come to expect a certain amount of quality when it comes to the most basic amenities in life.  Protection from police forces, drivable roads, clean water, and quality health care – all examples of the basics millions of us around the world take for granted.  All these topics are separate blogs in and of themselves but for now, my main gripe is the quality (or lack-thereof) of medical and dental care in this country – and the corresponding accountability that one would assume exists in such professions.  I’m not saying that high quality is not available here – I’m just raising the point ‘how is one to discern quality from mediocrity in this case?’  In a place where there is little to no regulation, no standardization and a blind faith general acceptance, without question, of whatever is being relayed by medical professionals – how is the average person to know when to do a figure eight and leave before the damage is done?  I once had to have dental work done and after a careful examination it was determined I would require two teeth extractions and one filling, each in subsequent sessions.  Later when I went in to have the procedures done, I was sitting in the dentist’s chair, fully comfortable with the doctor’s abilities, only to discover that the filling had been performed on a tooth that was to be extracted a week later!  If I hadn’t been conscientious enough or proactive in the business of my own healthcare, it would have just slipped by, I would have had to pay for it and then assume the mental and physical damage of having yet another filling done, in vain.  The sad part is that this took place in a well-renowned, ISO-certified facility.  (more…)