News
They held their son’s hands as he breathed his last
Gayan on graduation day
Emptiness stares them in the face wherever they cast their eyes, engulfing their very being.
They are back home in Ragama having bid goodbye to their beloved son, their only consolation that they were able to hold his hands as he breathed his last difficult breaths on Monday (February 1).
Very popular among his seniors, peers and juniors and adored by any patient who crossed his path, multifaceted Dr. Gayan Danthanarayana was the first in the healthcare sector to die of COVID-19 in Sri Lanka.
For Dr. Danthanarayanage Saranathilake and his wife, Ramani, Gayan Putha who is no more was their precious third son……hopes shattered, for father and son had many plans for the future not only in the profession of medicine but also in their love of music.
To no avail was the agonized calls of the distraught couple (Thaththi and Ammi): “Aney puthe nagitinna (Please, get up Putha),” when they saw him in his final moments at the Karapitiya Teaching Hospital, having been moved there from the Colombo East (Mulleriyawa) Hospital.
Through a heartbreaking, more than two-hour phone interview with Dr. Saranathilake covering a brief but fruitful 31 years, the Sunday Times learned about the life of Gayan, as condolence messages flooded social media.
Gayan was the third of five siblings, two older brothers and younger twins (a girl and a boy). Originally from Polonnaruwa, his parents Dr. Saranathilake and Ramani had set up home in Ragama along with a GP practice, for he was a Family Physician.
The first family tragedy gripped them in 2002, when their eldest son who was about to enter the Medical Faculty died in a train accident when he was just 17 years old.
The family soldiered on amidst the sadness, with Gayan attending Stafford International School and in Grade 8 moving to Lyceum International School in Nugegoda.
Little snippets of his life come to the fore – how he would entrain at Ragama, get off at Colombo Fort and then catch Bus No. 138 to Nugegoda. He was an all-rounder, good in science, mathematics and also literature as well as heavily into drama and music, adept at playing guitar, piano and organ.
“Five As including one for English Literature, Gayan secured,” says Dr. Saranathilake, adding that he bagged the ‘All-Island Best’ trophy from the Edexcel examination body.
Then it was off to Tianjin Medical University in China where he not only engaged in extracurricular activities such as music but was also known to help anyone who was in need with a kind word or even cash.
Back home with a medical degree, he got through the Act 16 Examination securing registration as a doctor, after which he served at the Chilaw and Ampara Hospitals before taking up a posting at the Colombo North (Ragama) Teaching Hospital, all the while being kind and caring, going beyond the call of duty, towards his patients and sharing his knowledge with his juniors whether it was taking a proper case history or more.
Consultant Hepatopancreatobiliary Surgeon Prof. Rohan Siriwardana, under whom Gayan served for five years, says that he was the “best” Senior House Officer he has had, reliable and dedicated. Patients would always come looking for him.
When Gayan got his Diploma in Family Medicine, he was under the Postgraduate Institute of Medicine (PGIM) but was re-attached to Ragama Hospital and was on rotation at various units.
Family-wise, he was very close to his Thaththi with whom he would have long conversations on medical topics, while he would hug his Ammi close, even making her shout to release her as it was too tight.
“Gayan was a strapping young man, 6’2” in height,” says Dr. Saranathilake, his voice breaking on the phone.
While Thaththi was involved in running the GP practice, with his patients always coming first, it was Ammi who attended to all matters concerning the children. But on weekends, the family would be out of home, having a meal at a café or visiting a park.
Gradually, the GP practice grew and their home and Suwa Sarana Hospital became established off Tewatte Road in Ragama, where Gayan too in his free time saw a few patients……..“a clever doctor with a human touch,” says Dr. Saranathilake.
Having been diagnosed with cardiovascular disease, Dr. Saranathilake who is in his 50s, had to undergo stenting as three of his heart valves were 99% blocked, at the end of last year. While he was recuperating back in his village in Bendi Wewa, it was Dr. Gayan who managed his patients on December 28, 29, 30 and 31, while attending lectures and training.
It was on January 2, that Thaththi and Ammi saw a healthy Gayan for the last time and while he chatted with the latter, father and son decided that as Dr. Saranathilake should not be under stress, he should do the morning stint and Gayan the evening stint at Suwa Sarana Hospital.
Gayan who was married to Dental Surgeon Dr. Harshini Yapa was living with his in-laws, away from his family home.
When Dr. Saranathilake called Gayan on January 3, there had been no answer. He had also got the nurses at his clinic to call him but still there was no answer. “I was a little angry with him as to why he was not answering our calls,” he sighs.
It was on January 12 that they got a call from a friend of Gayan’s with the chilling news: “Doctor-uncle, Gayan is very sick and is in the Mulleriyawa Hospital’s ICU.” Suffering from COVID-19, he had been admitted to hospital on January 10.
Rushing there immediately, he had seen the critical condition Gayan was in, propped face-down to ease his breathing, on high pressure oxygen, for both his lungs were affected by severe pneumonia.
With Gayan’s condition deteriorating, all efforts to save his life had proved futile. Taken to the Karapitiya Hospital on January 28 for extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) available only there for the whole of the country, he died around 10 a.m. on February 1. As his parents had got COVID-19 and recovered, they were able to be by his side on January 31 and hold his hand, unlike for others who die a lonely death.
After pansakula, their beloved son had been cremated the same day at the Dadella cemetery, amidst their tears.
“What can we look forward to,” asks Dr. Saranathilake.
What plans, what hopes……..oft of an evening those days, while Thaththi treated patients on the first floor of Suwa Sarana Hospital, his Gayan Putha would usually be in his music studio on the second floor, strumming his guitar.
“Putha had plans of putting out a CD and kept saying that I should sing,” says, Dr. Saranathilake, murmuring that he is looking for the key to the studio.
In Gayan’s memory, his Ammi and Thaththi hope to set up a Trust Fund, when the heartache at the loss of a beloved son, eases just a little bit.
| A plea from Gayan’s father “Please go to hospital early and seek treatment if you are ill. Do not delay,” is the earnest plea of bereaved Dr. Danthanarayanage Saranathilake. He cautions each and every one that COVID-19 is a very dangerous illness and once the condition deteriorates into pneumonia it may be too late. | |
| We were a good combo, says Gayan’s batch and room-mate Gayan and his red electric guitar were inseparable…..like an extension of his body, says Dr. Kushan Atukorala who was his batch and room-mate at Tianjin. He recalls the day in 2005 how he got a call from his potential room-mate. The deep voice belied the person. He thought it would be a rugged, sporty-type, but Gayan was child-like, chubby and young. He was the youngest in their batch of 96. They were not only roommates but friends from then on. “We were a good combo. Gayan would practise rock music into the wee hours of the morning, but I could sleep through. Many of the neighbours though did not take kindly to the loud noise,” says Kushan. In their third year, along with another friend, Chamika, they formed a band – the first foreign rock band to be stationed in China, being invited to play on Mayor’s day in this third largest city in the country. Returning to Sri Lanka, Gayan was based at Chilaw and Kushan at Moneragala without leisure time to meet up, next moving to Ampara and Akkaraipattu respectively. Here Gayan became very popular not just in Ampara but in the whole of the Eastern Province as he was working at the Premature Baby Unit. Going beyond the call of duty, he looked after ill neonates being brought from rural areas, stabilizing them and later transferring them to the Lady Ridgeway Hospital (LRH) for Children, Colombo. Even amidst all his work, Gayan was part of ‘Neurocracy’, a heavy metal outfit, as its lead guitarist and composer. As the medical fraternity mourns for him, Kushan’s sentiments about his friend who is no more are echoed by many – Gayan was charismatic, humble and very skilled! |