Appreciations

Hiran Sri KirthiSingha, former Professor of Surgery in the Peradeniya Medical School, died in Britain on October 1, 2007. The eldest of the three sons born to a well endowed Sinhalese family whose roots were both in Panadura and Negombo, Sri had his early education at S. Thomas' College, Mount Lavinia. Soon after the end of World War II, he was fortunate enough to get one of the scarce passages that were available on the converted troopships to England. He had been accepted by Cambridge University for the Natural Science course, which was the precursor to a medical degree.

Following the pre-clinical course at Cambridge, he attended the clinical course at the London Hospital (now the Royal London) in Whitechapel Road. He qualified as M.B., B. Chir. in 1951, and having decided on a surgical career, obtained appointments in various London hospitals.

In due course he passed the Primary in 1954, and then the Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons of England in 1955. He broadened his surgical education by obtaining the post of Surgical Registrar, before returning to Ceylon. He visited England again in 1962 and followed refresher courses at St. Peter's and St. Paul's Hospitals and added the Cambridge Mastership in Surgery to his qualifications.

His first appointment in the Medical Department of Ceylon was as Resident Surgeon at the Colombo General Hospital, the only hospital attached to the sole medical school then. His contemporaries as Resident Surgeon were R.A. Navaratne and A. Gabriel. The duties of the Resident Surgeon were not quite comparable to his previous appointments. In Colombo, the Resident Surgeon was responsible for dealing with all surgical casualty admissions from 7. p.m. to 7 a.m. the next day, while the consultants were responsible from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. The idea of being part of a team was lacking, and the Resident Surgeons would operate on casualty admissions where patients were admitted under different consultants depending on the day of the week, but have no further responsibility after 7 a.m. If there was cohesion between the two persons responsible for surgical care, it was purely fortuitous. This was strange to KirthiSingha whose previous experience in England had been as part of a team headed by a consultant.

In due course, he was appointed as Consultant Surgeon at the Base Hospital in Gampaha, and later at the General Hospital in Kurunegala for a brief period, before he secured appointment as Senior Lecturer in Surgery at the newly established medical school at Peradeniya in 1965. Here too his tenure was of short duration as Professor C.P. de Fonseka, the first to be appointed to the chair, resigned in less than a year and KirthiSingha succeeded him in the post.

The following six years were the period when he moulded the character of the new medical school by an approach that was hitherto unknown in this country. Professor Senaka Bibile was the Dean of the new school and was largely responsible for the changes in attitude that were effected here. There was total cooperation from the staff in all departments of both university and the government hospital.

At Prof. Bibile's urging each of the clinical disciplines had regular meetings at the end of each university term of academic and clinical staff for discussion and setting out of objectives for medical education, and later to evaluate whether such objectives had been achieved. If not, what further options were to be pursued.

This was a fruitful exercise in developing a learning process for the students. The end result was an approach to encourage active student participation, rather than passive learning. The entire staff cooperated. Professors Lester Jayawardene in Anatomy, Watson and Jansz in Physiology, Tommy Wickramanayake in Biochemistry, George Tennakoon and Ralph Panabokke (Pathology), Arsecularatne in Microbiology, Bibile in Pharmacology, Macan Markar and Varagunam in Medicine, Aponso in Paediatrics, Harris Ranasinghe and Cleopis Jayawardene in Forensic Medicine, and of the General Hospital staff there were Drs Dharmasena, Dharmadasa, Kolitha Karunaratne, Ivan Ferdinands and D. Chanmugam, (Medicine), P.A.P. Joseph, Merlyn Kumarasinghe, Mylvaganam and Mark Amerasinghe in Surgery, Andrew Perera, D. Gunatilleke and Wedanda (Obstetrics), Weerasena and Talwatte (Radiology), Hamza (Paediatrics).

If the first graduates from the new medical school were a welcome addition to the profession, it was the whole-hearted cooperation of persons in various departments who brought this about. Bibile as the Chairman held the reins. The end result was a body of students who were outgoing and perhaps as well educated, if not better, than their peers , even if the facilities at Kandy were considerably less than in Colombo.

Prof. KirthiSingha was foremost in encouraging student participation. The door to his office was always open. Any student was welcome to speak to him at any time, and he discoursed on a wider range of subjects than just surgery. Medical ethics, the relationship of doctors with patients, and world affairs were all grist to his mill. He also simplified the teaching of surgery so that students had no difficulty in grasping the essentials of the subject.

The cult of personality was furthest from his mind. He invited members of the surgical staff at Kandy General Hospital to deliver formal lectures to the students. During the six years that he held the position of chief, he had developed an excellent relationship between students and staff so that the learning of surgery had become a pleasure. It then came as a surprise when in 1971 he resigned. No reasons were given. None understood the reason why. He then returned to England and began a new career in Genito-Urinary Medicine with a consultant appointment at Southampton.

However, it is for his stewardship in the Department of Surgery at Peradeniya where he achieved so much, and for which he will be remembered. He inculcated the concept of pride in being a Peradeniya man. He regarded the selected body of students at Peradeniya as akin to membership of the unobtrusively discriminatory clubs, and hoped that the manner and bearing of the man would stamp him (or her) as a Peradeniya graduate. That was the ultimate accolade that he trusted would be bestowed upon the students.

He was inordinately pleased that this unique quality of dignity and professionalism in the students of his time was achieved in no small measure. At Peradeniya, he, and his colleagues, were trailblazers. After a prolonged illness, bravely borne, he passed away at the age of eighty-one in a London Hospital in October 2007.

He will be missed by those privileged to have known him. He is survived by his wife Chrisanthi and two sons, Armin and Harin from his first marriage. We extend our sympathies to them.

From professor to professionalism at Peradeniya Medical Faculty