One of India’s trendiest, most popular spiritual leaders has the golden chance to raise awareness around SDH and timely medical intervention. Will he?

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It was when I saw in the news that Sadhguru had undergone brain surgery that I realised his full name is Jaggi Vasudev. He apparently had a chronic subdural hematoma, abbreviated as SDH in neurosurgical parlance. It occurs when tiny bridging veins between the surface of the brain and its covering, the dura, snap. The rupture can either be spontaneous or precipitated by even minimal trauma. It often happens in the elderly, who sometimes don’t realise they might have bumped their head somewhere. It is also more common in this age group, as with age, the brain tends to shrink a little and there is a potential space between the brain and the dura. In young adults,the brain has more ego and hence is fuller, disallowing for this potential space.

Over time, blood accumulates in this void, and when full, the liquefied blood causes physical pressure on the brain, which brings on symptoms such as headache, vomiting and occasional weakness of an arm and leg. If left untreated, this can rapidly progress to confusion, altered sensorium, and even a quick slip into coma. Allegedly—and I must confess that this is all hearsay—Sadhguru worked through several days of ignoring his headaches, performing rituals, giving sermons, and attending conclaves until his condition deteriorated to a point where it required an emergency operation to make a hole in the head and drain the blood that had collected.

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The surgery itself is one........

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