SouthGen Gives Back, Helps Naga Victims
The commitment to serve goes beyond and gets tested in times of tragedy. Following the landslide incident that claimed the lives of many in the City of Naga, your medical and nonmedical staff at SouthGen were quick to respond and held relief operations. A CebuDoc-wide effort, which was spearheaded by SouthGen, the Naga relief was able to gather donations from generous individuals who dropped their shares at CebuDoc hospitals all over the province. Other than distributing relief goods, SouthGen also provided the rescuers and landslide victims with masks and oxygen. But the heart to bring healthcare closer to the people in the south wasn’t just about helping Naga.
Prior to the tragedy, the hospital held a separate medical mission where patient beneficiaries received free medicines as well as medical, dental and eye check-ups.
At least one in 1,000 people is suffering from Achalasia - a condition that removes the ability to take in food or drink properly leading to dysphagia or difficulty in swallowing. The rare disease is a debilitating functional disorder of the esophagus (food tube) that prevents people from ingesting enough nutrients to thrive. It is commonly mistaken for gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) or psychological disorders such as anorexia. Inability of food to pass into the stomach manifests with various symptoms such as dysphagia, heartburn, chest pain, regurgitation, and sometimes weight loss. Achalasia is a benign functional disorder where the esophagus loses its ability to propel food into the stomach. At the same time, the lower esophageal sphincter (LES), the muscular ring that divides the esophagus and the stomach, fails to relax in response to swallowing. The cause of this disease is still unknown. However, a team ofresearchers in KU Leuven in Belgium, the University of Bonn in Germany and other European institutions have suspected that this occurrence is rooted when the autoimmune response of the body mistakenly targets the esophageal nerve cells for a viral infection.POEM for immediate solution A study from American College of Gastroenterology recommends a tailored approach to treating achalasia. Treatment should be focused on relaxing the LES to allow food to pass into the stomach. CebuDoc now offers Per-Oral Endoscopic Myotomy (POEM), an innovative minimally-invasive technique to treat patients with achalasia. At present, we are the only hospital in the whole Visayas and Mindanao with a physician who is capable of performing this procedure safely. “When I saw patients who couldn’t tolerate any solid meals or even liquid meals, it really piqued my interest. That made me really want to find a way to help these patients,” said Dr. Joshua E. Tuason, a Laparoscopic and Endoscopic surgeon at CebuDoc. He completed his one-year clinical fellowship in therapeutic endoscopy under Prof. Haruhiro Inoue, a renowned pioneer of this procedure in Tokyo, Japan.
Prior to the tragedy, the hospital held a separate medical mission where patient beneficiaries received free medicines as well as medical, dental and eye check-ups.
A Medical Condition Called Achalasia
At least one in 1,000 people is suffering from Achalasia - a condition that removes the ability to take in food or drink properly leading to dysphagia or difficulty in swallowing. The rare disease is a debilitating functional disorder of the esophagus (food tube) that prevents people from ingesting enough nutrients to thrive. It is commonly mistaken for gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) or psychological disorders such as anorexia. Inability of food to pass into the stomach manifests with various symptoms such as dysphagia, heartburn, chest pain, regurgitation, and sometimes weight loss. Achalasia is a benign functional disorder where the esophagus loses its ability to propel food into the stomach. At the same time, the lower esophageal sphincter (LES), the muscular ring that divides the esophagus and the stomach, fails to relax in response to swallowing. The cause of this disease is still unknown. However, a team ofresearchers in KU Leuven in Belgium, the University of Bonn in Germany and other European institutions have suspected that this occurrence is rooted when the autoimmune response of the body mistakenly targets the esophageal nerve cells for a viral infection.POEM for immediate solution A study from American College of Gastroenterology recommends a tailored approach to treating achalasia. Treatment should be focused on relaxing the LES to allow food to pass into the stomach. CebuDoc now offers Per-Oral Endoscopic Myotomy (POEM), an innovative minimally-invasive technique to treat patients with achalasia. At present, we are the only hospital in the whole Visayas and Mindanao with a physician who is capable of performing this procedure safely. “When I saw patients who couldn’t tolerate any solid meals or even liquid meals, it really piqued my interest. That made me really want to find a way to help these patients,” said Dr. Joshua E. Tuason, a Laparoscopic and Endoscopic surgeon at CebuDoc. He completed his one-year clinical fellowship in therapeutic endoscopy under Prof. Haruhiro Inoue, a renowned pioneer of this procedure in Tokyo, Japan.