Indo-American Filmmaker’s ‘Brown Heart’ to Raise Awareness on Early Onset Heart Disease
Indo American filmmaker and physician Dr Nirmal Joshi and renowned cardiac surgeon Dr Prateek Bhatnagar, Chairman Cardiac Surgery Virinchi Hospitals held a press conference today at Virinchi Hospital Banjara Hills Hyderabad.
- The risk quotient of heart attacks among Indians is 2 to 4 times greater than others
- 50% of heart attacks among Indians occur in people under 50 years of age
Hyderabad: Indo American filmmaker and physician Dr Nirmal Joshi and renowned cardiac surgeon Dr Prateek Bhatnagar, Chairman Cardiac Surgery Virinchi Hospitals held a press conference today at Virinchi Hospital Banjara Hills Hyderabad.
USA based Dr Nirmal Joshi is shooting a film that deals with the high incidence of heart disease seen in Indians all over the world. Dr Joshi is interviewing leading heart specialists of the world and taking their opinions. He has completed the shooting in the US & UK and is now shooting the Indian leg.
Dr Nirmal Joshi addressing the media said, India has unequivocally some of the best doctors in the world, whether they are practicing in India or abroad UK, USA, Australia or wherever, we make a name for ourselves like no one else, we are very proud of that.
The documentary I am producing is called the Brown Heart. I have done about 35 to 40 years of healthcare practice, taken care of patients. When I take care of a patient, I impact that one life, similarly when Dr Bhatnagar takes care of that person, he impacts that life.
Thought we need to do much bigger, which impacts several lives simultaneously, which is what led us to conceptualize the concept of brown heart. The reason for calling this, Brown Heart is, Indian heart is unique, the reason why it is different, it is well known now that lot of us suffer from heart attacks very very early in life, many of us die of heart attack very early in life.
50% of the heart attacks across the world in Indians occur in people less than 50 years of age. Among Indians the incidence of heart disease is 2 to 4 times more than others.
There were deaths reported during Garbha performance, in people who were 19, 25, 30 years old, they had sudden deaths due to heart attack. Dr Bhatnagar has operated on a person as young as 19-years-old.
That has to stop, that’s why we are in the process of producing this documentary of Brown Heart. Too often we go out and speak to people, but no one is listening to us, we thought we need to do something on much bigger scale through a real film.
We began to create an entire film around this so important topic. I and my wife went across the world to talk to experts and also to capture human stories, what did they do or not do in their lives to get a heart attack.
We are putting it together in the form of a beautiful story, which will be very engaging for people to be able to look at and say I didn’t know that. The last third of the film will be focused on what you can do about this problem. The release of the film should be sometime in June. Dr Prateek Bhatnagar has phenomenal talent, and he has narrowed down to a particular surgery called BIMA Grafting, which he has absolutely mastered.
In Hyderabad, Dr Prateek Bhatnagar, a top heart surgeon, has been chosen to feature in the film and explain what ails the Indian hearts. Dr Bhatnagar is a world authority in BIMA bypass surgery, a method of bypass surgery that gives more than 20 years of benefits. In BIMA bypass surgery there are no cuts in legs or hands and is hence the most painless and trauma less surgery.
Dr Prateek Bhatnagar spoke about the wide benefits of BIMA bypass surgery and how this surgery, done at less than 1% risk in standard cases, has already improved the quality & quantity of life in his patients.
He stated that all patients needing a bypass surgery of the heart should get a BIMA bypass surgery for maximum benefits. BIMA bypass surgery gives long life to the patient, as it’s done without bypass surgery, which is, we don’t cut the heart, don’t stop the heart, don’t use artificial heart lung machine.
We do the surgery on a beating heart, with that we are able to exclude all the risk factors like stroke, kidney damage, liver damage etc.
Dr Nirmal Joshi said that he wanted to make a difference in the suffering of Indians having heart disease and hence he took up this task of speaking to and filming top heart specialists in the world. Dr. Joshi is an acclaimed filmmaker and his films have been screened at multiple festivals including the Satyajit Ray Film Festival, London.
The film has tentatively been named “The Brown Heart” and should be ready for screening in June this year.
