Part 5 - The Clinical teachers. Some milestones in the history of the Colombo Medical School - Some remarkable Clinical Teachers of the early 1960s. Part 4 The Clinical Teachers.

In the ward classes called the 'Pre-clinicals' in our 2nd MB and in the appointments called 'Clerking' in the later years, where the students spent two months with a Consultant in each major specialty  the inputs were remarkable. Each one of these Consultants was a 'character'. What fun we had learning about life and medicine from them. They were some of the ideals we built on. They were quite 'distant' with us as they belonged to a different generation but the dedication and love they had for their work stood out. Hardly any of them were mercenary and they did not have the vulgar habit of flaunting their riches.
I list below a few of the names which stand out and will expand on the experiences we had as students.

The Clinical teachers – b - The Physicians & Obs.&Gyn. Consultants.

Dr. Thanabalasunderam Consultant Physician
Dr. Thanabalasunderam known affectionately as 'Thanaballs' was a superb clinician and demanding teacher. He followed 'Hutchison's Clinical methods' to the letter. Students dreaded to get his appointment but once in worked hard for the allotted eight weeks. Every student had to do the 'Benedicts' ward test for sugar in each of his allotted patient. It demanded a lot of time and effort. In the pre 'Glucometer' days any patient admitted to the GH Colombo had an entry on the BHT by the nurse, on urine sugar as tested by Benedicts solution. This diabetes mellitus was picked up early and treatment instituted. Alas those days are gone.
I met 'Thanabals' in the private sector at the 'Sulaimans Hospital' in Grand-pass, Colombo when I was Consultant Surgeon at the NHSL. He still had the same meticulous clinical effort to his dying day.

Dr. Wijenaike Consultant Physician

Dr.Wijenayake VP -  Dr Wijenayake was a Visiting Physician, at the GH Colombo when we were medical students. Once our batch during the early days of clerking, when we were picking up our basics of symptoms and signs, was being shown a patient with bronchial asthma. He asked one member of our batch, to use his newly aquired stethescope, to listen to the sounds in the chest. He was asked to describe what he heard. My friend who was not sure of the differrent types of breath soiunds answered:-

                "Sir, I hear RHONCHIAL breathing".

 Dr.Wijenayake looked at him through his tinted glasses and said:-

"I have heard of Vesicular breathing, Asthmatic breathing and I have heard Rhonchi. This is the first time I am hearing about this type of breathing called RHONCHIAL"

My friend blushed red in the face and was speechless.

Dr. Medonza Consultant Physician

Medical reps were a 'presence' during our student days. They used to hover around the consultants. Those days there was minimal control over sale of drugs in Ceylon. Doctors were pressurized by their patients to prescribe 'tonics'. The 'tonics' had a variety of vitamins and a liberal dose of alcohol. Quite a few patients liked the brew. These 'tonics' were labeled as "Harmless useless drugs' by our teachers in the Department of Pharmacology headed by Prof.Bibile. I remember Dr.Lionel, one of the senior lecturers in the pharmacology department, telling us in one of his lectures, about a very well prescribed tonic called 'Tonicum Merz'. He said that on the label of the bottle of this tonic it listed the various ingredients. It had various vitamins, minerals, alcohol and what was described as "Extractum faecies" whatever that meant. Prof.Bibile in his short span of 52 years of life, transformed the way drugs were imported into Sri-Lanka. He was a model for the third world. His policies on purchase and distribution of drugs by a state revolutionized the thinking of states, where drug multi-nationals ruled the roost on drug prescriptions.

                                                                                                One day while we were waiting for Dr.Medonza VP to arrive in the ward to do his ward rounds we saw a smartly dressed medical rep with tie and portfolio in his hand approach him. He followed Dr.Medonza to the entrance to the ward. He pulled out a tube of medicament from his bag and said "Sir, I have a sample of Drapolene crème to give you". Medonza promptly answered " Drapolene crème? What do I want Drapolene crème for? To wipe my arse?" The medical rep went red in the face and beat a hasty retreat in the face of laughter from the medical students.
Dr. Rolly P. Jayewardene, 
b:1918, d:11 Nov 1999, MD, MRCP and FRCP, Senior Physician of the General Hospital, Colombo. Director-General at NARESA (Natural Resources Energy and Science Authority) which has now been replaced by the NSF (Natural Science Foundation). + DR. Gladys, Chairperson, State Pharmaceutical Corporation, PhD in Parasitology from University of London. The first woman to be the Director of The Medical Research Institute.

Dr. Ernie Peiris Consultant Physician

‘Errnie’ to the medical students was short, chubby and was nattily dressed. He was fair with a round face. He had a subtle sense of humor but a blushing red face was a dead give-away for a subtle joke. He thus earned the nick name ‘thakkaali’ (tomato) Peiris. He would drive in, in his green two tone Austin Cambridge. The white satin drill suit was a perfect match. He had noticed a young couple in our batch who were in the early stages of ‘getting hitched’. A patient with ascites was on the bed. Ernie demonstrated to us the method of ‘eliciting a thrill’ to show that there was fluid inside the peritoneal cavity. Ernie got the male member of the couple to stand on the left side of the patient and made him place his right palm on the patient’s left flank. Then he got the girl tostand on the right side of the patient and place her right palm edgewise on the abdomen from the epigastrium to just below the umbilicus to dampen the thrill travelling across the abdominal wall. He then gave a flick with his finger on the left side of the patient’s abdomen. He asked the male whether he felt a thrill. The male medical student answered ‘yes’. Then he got the girl to use her left hand and flick on the right side of the patient’s abdomen. He asked the male student whether he felt a thrill this time also. He answered ‘Yes Sir’ with a beaming face. Ernie remarked ‘Now you know how to thrill each other’. At the same time true to form Ernie went red in the face.

Dr. Prince Rajaratnam Consultant Obs&Gyn

Dr. Ms Panchalingam Consultant Obs&Gyn

Dr. Henry Nannayakkara Consultant Obs & Gyn.

A tale related by Dr. Mark Amarasinghe

Dr. Mark Amarasinghe was training in Liverpool with Mr.Charles Wells, the Surgeon. Dr.Henry Nannayakkara had finished his training with Mr.Charles Wells and had returned to Ceylon. News reached Mark that his friend Henry had got his appointment as Consultant Obstetrician in the Department of Health Services, Ceylon. The following conversation took place between Mark and ‘Charlie’ Wells.

Mark – Sir, Dr.Henry  Nannayayakkara has been appointed a Consultant in Ceylon.

Charles Wells – Excellent, excellent.

Mark – He has been appointed as a Consultant  Obtetrician and Gynaecologist.

Charles Wells – What a waste of an excellent operator.

Advice of an old Obstetrician

This story was related to me by Dr.Mark Amerasinghe, Orthopedic Surgeon.

There was a mango tree just outside the DMH OT, with a lot of fruits hanging and a few ripe fruits fallen on the ground below. Dr.Caldera pointed the tree to young Dr. Nannayakkara, just returned from UK and full of new ideas on obstetric intervention, and said

' Dr.Nannayakkara, do you see those mango fruits? When the time is ripe they fall down.' That was all Dr.Caldera said and Henry – later to become Professor of Obs & Gyn, understood and remembered it for a lifetime. 

Dr. Stanley De Silva Consultant Paediatrician

Dr. Ms Stella De Silva Consultant Paediatrician

Dr. Ms. Barr Kumarakulasinghe Consultant Paediatrician