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Tsunami’s ‘Baby 81’ dreams of being a doctor
As the country marks the 14th anniversary of the tsunami next week, Jeyarajah Abilash, who survived the deadly waves in Kalmunai as a newborn baby and went on to make headlines around the world, also marks the anniversary of his miraculous survival.
Abilash as a baby with his parents
Abilash, now completing his education in his village, says his only ambition is to serve the country as a doctor.
His parents, Murugupillai and Jenita Jeyarajah, recall their anguish when they lost two-month-old Abilash and had to struggle afterwards to regain custody of the child.
“I suffered,” Mrs Jeyarajah told The Sunday Times. “When my son, who I breast-fed, went missing for months you can imagine how much I had to suffer.”
“That past was awful, but at last we found our son!”
“We lost everything in the tsunami,” her husband said. “It’s only now that we are just raising our heads. We were to lose Abilash but God gave him back.”
Mr Jeyarajah, who makes a living as a barber, echoed his wife in asking for help to give his son a fine education. “Here, facilities are not sufficient so if someone offers to help we could send him abroad for higher education. It will be the best thing for this child, who is our whole life,” Mr Jeyarajah said.
“I can’t believe how I was saved,” said Abilash, once only known as Baby 81. “Both my parents love me very much. I have a sister. Now I am studying at Settikulam. In 2019, I will be in Grade 10. I hope to be a doctor,” he said.
The story of Abilash attracted local and foreign media attention due to the struggle to prove his parentage, with many couples rushing to claim him for their own.
In the confused aftermath of the tsunami on December 26, 2004, with thousands of people reported dead or missing, a neighbour found Abilash lying in a banana plantation and handed him over to the Kalmunai Base Hospital.
There, he joined 80 other injured tsunami survivors. The child was given the No. 81 patient identifying tag and came to be known as Baby 81 as his name was not known. Medical staff lavished care on the “orphan” baby.
News of the baby spread and parents who had lost their children hurried to hospital to see the child and lay claim to him.
Nine sets of parents laid claim to Abilash. Fathers and mothers wept, asking for the child.
Abilash is now a Grade 10 student
Murugupillai and Jenita Jeyarajah argued fiercely that they were the real parents but they had no documents to prove it. In desperation and grief, on February 2, 2005 Mrs Jeyarajah tried to snatch the child from the hospital but was stopped.
The staff of the hospital were in a dilemma about what they should do.
Eventually the task of identifying the parents of the child fell to the Kalmunai Magistrate, M B Mohideen.
The then Chief Inspector at Hatton Police Station and current Officer-in-Charge of the Crime Branch, Mohamed Jemil, took charge of the investigation. He asked Magistrate Mohideen for permission to take the child and those who claimed him for DNA tests at Genetech at Colombo.
Only one couple came in to be tested: the Jeyarajahs, who had attempted to take the child away by force.
UNICEF, the UN International Children’s Emergency Fund, arranged for the couple and the baby to be taken to Colombo accompanied by the Kalmunai Court Registrar, a nurse and Inspector Jemil.
Genetech founder Dr Maya Gunasekara and Senior Scientist Dr Ruwan Ilapperuma performed the DNA test on February 9, 2005 and sent the report to the magistrate at Kalmunai.
On February 16, the magistrate announced to a crowded courthouse that the child was the son of Mr and Mrs. Jeyarajah.
Weeping with joy, Murugupillai and Jenita Jeyarajah, accompanied by all their relatives, took baby Abilash back home.