Dr KK Aggarwal receives Harpal S Buttar Oration Award from Nobel Laureate Dr Ferid Murad

The Award was given by International Academy of Cardiovascular Sciences India The award was given by Nobel Laureate Dr Ferid Murad of Washington University. Others who were present were Dr Harpal S Buttar himself and Dr G N Singh Drug Controller General of India.

Prof. Buttar is an eminent professor in Canada and has made significant contributions in preventive cardiology, especially role of diet.

The Oration was chaired by Dr. Robert Roberts, President and CEO, House of Ottawa Heart Institute Canada and Dr. S C Tiwari. Dr. Aggarwal, who is also currently Senior Vice President Indian Medical Association, spoke on the concept of Savitri mantra for reviving a heart after sudden cardiac death.

Dr. Aggarwal said that consciousness does not leave the body for up to few minutes after cardiac arrest. During this period, if hands only cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR 10) is attempted by bystander, the person can be revived.

At Heart Care Foundation of India, Dr. Aggarwal has designed the Savitri Mantra for easy adoption of the same by the public. It is based on the traditional Indian Vedic knowledge where Savitri fought with Yamraja and saved her husband Satyavan, probably, by doing something equivalent to hands only CPR.

The Savitri Mantra is the Formula of 10 (CPR 10), which talks about the importance of the numerical number ‘10’. It says, in English “To revive a person from sudden cardiac death, within 10 minutes of death (earlier the better), at least for the next 10 minutes (longer the better), compress the centre of the chest of the dead person by 1 ½” distance continuously with a speed of 10×10 i.e. 100 per minute.”

In Hindi it can be remembered as “Marne ke dus minute ke andar (jitna jaldi utna behtar), kam se kam agle dus minute tak (jitni der tak utna behtar, 10×10=100 ki gati se, apni chhati peetne ke bajaye mare hue aadmi ki chhati peeto.“

In a survey conducted on 1000 school children after three months, a recall value of Hindi version of the Mantra was excellent with 90% remembering the later part of the mantra and 60% remembering the complete mantra.