It was the fulfilment of this promise made seven months ago that saw a simple ceremony with very limited numbers – in keeping with the challenging times of COVID-19 – gather on Thursday to light the traditional oil lamp.

“Timely and done with the least inconvenience to our little cancer patients,” is how Paediatric Oncologist Dr. Mahendra Somathilaka of the Apeksha Hospital in Maharagama describes it, as the ‘face’ that launched this project, Kushlani Amarasuriya, looks on with humility, surrounded by those who supported her in many ways.

These facilities will be a boon to 600-700 new children who seek not only treatment but also succour from the Apeksha Hospital every year.

In honour of all the children who walk through the Paediatric Unit and to hold out a beacon of hope, the first wick of the oil lamp was lit by 12-year-old Hiruni Soysa, who had been in Ward 16B in 2018, “where every bed was full”. Hiruni had been here after being diagnosed with cancer and has recovered now.

The expanded facilities, covering 2,218 sq.ft. (around 700 sq.ft. per floor) in the Paediatric Unit are:

•  An additional fully-equipped Intensive Care Unit (ICU) with four more beds including one in an isolation room with attached toilet, to augment the four-bed ICU on the 2nd Floor;
•  Increased capacity in the Day Chemotherapy Unit on the 1st Floor with 10 more beds. This will prevent around 50-60 children who are there from early morn (as early as 3 a.m.) from waiting in a long snaking line;
•  An area with nine beds to supplement the beds in Ward 16 on the Ground Floor equipped with furniture, saline stands and bedside cupboards;
•  Water proofing, heat insulation and several layers above, with a surrounding wall with rail for the 875 sq.ft rooftop;
•  Adjustment of the foundation of the building to enable a 4th Floor to be built.
•  Other facilities including doctors’ rest-rooms, nurses’ rest-room and dining room, nurses’ stations, store rooms, toilets and showers as also soft furnishings (curtains & linen) and the oxygen supply to the ICU.

The much-needed Rs. 32 million project was funded through a legacy of Mrs. Amarasuriya’s late parents specifically her mother. Her parents need no introduction, for they were eminent Obstetrician & Gynaecologist, Prof. D.A. Ranasinghe and prolific writer and poet Anne Ranasinghe.

The funding had been from Mrs. Ranasinghe’s will which specified – 1/10th of the share of the sale of the main asset her parents had, the house they including Mrs. Amarasuriya lived in for many years, to be used for the benefit of children and animals.

“I respect her wishes very much for thinking of other children and animals which we all love. She gifted the same amount to us all, a large family,” says Mrs. Amarasuriya.

Having walked past many little patients, some with shaven heads, terrified others here for the first time crying or clinging to devastated parents, the new sections are a safe haven.

With the serene face of Lord Buddha in the Samadhi posture being the first glimpse we get as we climb the last few steps to the 2nd Floor, the new ICU beckons – the comfortable beds made up awaiting their first patients with calming blue and cream blinds on the windows.

The crowded scenes at both the paediatric clinics and wards that Mrs. Amarasuriya witnessed when she initiated discussions with Dr. Somathilaka in 2019, had been a far cry from several decades before when she had done voluntary work here.

While Dr. Somathilaka, a little skeptical as many had come before with promises, listed out the needs of the little ones with the determination of increasing the number of beds rather than building a new ward for want of new staff, Mrs. Amarasuriya was “impressed” that never did he even ask for a chair for himself.

Detailing the pathway to all these expanded facilities, Mrs. Amarasuriya recalls how the final plea from Dr. Somathilaka was an increase in the capacity of the ICU.

“Although my mother’s funds were already committed to three other projects by the time Health Ministry approval was obtained for this project, I assured him that somehow the ICU will also be extended,” she says.

Earlier, the approvals from the ministry had been hard to come by, even though Mrs. Amarasuriya’s original project proposal along with architectural plans, approved by the Deputy Director of the Apeksha Hospital had been submitted and approved by courts for funds to be released in mid-2019.

Referring to this saga, she says that the file had apparently not reached the ministry from Apeksha Hospital or just disappeared between October 2019 and March 2020, although she did get a letter in October 2019 approving the project.

Then there had been absolute silence, with Mrs. Amarasuriya haunting the corridors of the ministry and meeting in early March 2020, Health Minister Pavithra Wanniarachchi who had instructed that approval be granted in a few days on submission of a new file.

The approval for the project had been granted on March 5, last year, but it was not to be, just yet……..architectural plans finalized and ground work completed, as they were about to initiate work in October 2020, the Minuwangoda COVID-19 cluster had erupted, compelling postponement. Rising to these exigencies, the construction company, Isuru Engineering, had not sat back and idled.

Taking numerous precautions approved by the hospital, its “amazing” team including disciplined workers from far away Kilinochchi had begun full steam ahead on December 10, unfazed by entry restrictions and closely guided by General Manager & Project Manager Sanjeewa Kularathne and Chairman Mahesh Pasqual.They had also taken away the “stress and strain” of site visits for Mrs. Amarasuriya by performing their work efficiently.

Seeing the final product, observers can only imagine the difficulties the construction team would have had to navigate, with the vital need of protecting vulnerable and immune-compromised patients from dust and rubble.

Mrs. Amarasuriya, meanwhile, was also very appreciative of the honorary services of Architect Asanga Samarasekera and his structural engineer.

“Mr. Samarasekera and Mr. Pasqual (who had undertaken the work on a minimum profit/cover-cost basis) joined the project as good Lion friends of my husband Mahendra,” says Mrs. Amarasuriya, while also paying tribute to her mother’s lawyer, Nivi Abeyeratna, who herself donated a TV and her sister-in-law Savitri Peiris who not only looked at the accounts closely but also presented curtains/blinds for all three floors.

A strict stickler to meticulous details, Mrs. Amarasuriya assures the gathering that she would be handing over the files with a complete inventory and warranty and guarantee cards shortly, while hoping that another donor would take on the task of building the 4th floor for all those little children of Sri Lanka affected by cancer.

 

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