Anecdotes

 I am waiting for a ‘plane'

            Mr. 'R' was a Specialist Medical Officer, in Jaffna, before the arrival of the 'Indian Peace Keeping Force', to a troubled North and East of Sri-Lanka.  There were various armed groups like PLOT, LTTE, and EPDP etc operating in the Jaffna peninsula at that time. 'R' had a habit of going out for long walks. One late evening he was waiting at a bus halt in the outskirts of Jaffna, to get back to the hospital. He was obviously an outsider by face and demeanor. A youngster lounging by, observing him for a long time had come and asked him why he was waiting. 'R' had replied with annoyance and humor ‘I am waiting for a ‘plane’.  'R''s English accent had made the boy suspicious. The boy had disappeared and come back with a van load of armed militants, who hijacked 'R' for interrogation, for they suspected him to be a spy working for the Government of Sri-Lanka. Luckily the hospital authorities came to know about this hi-jack and rescued him, after negotiations with the armed group.

 Fork and spoon in a ‘thosai kade’

            In Jaffna when 'R' went out to have his meal in a ‘thosai kade’ he would take his fork and spoon, wrapped up in a napkin, in his pocket. He would pull them out and use them to consume his daily fare, served on a banana leaf, much to the amusement of all.

The lost scalpel blade

            When we work with much used equipment, which are not inspected and replaced periodically in the operating theatres of Sri-Lanka, we are bound to meet catastrophes. During surgery for a cardiac defect, at the former GH Colombo, the small disposable scalpel blade, attached to the shaft of the scalpel, fell into the cavity of the heart and before the blink of an eyelid, was whisked with the circulating blood, into the pulmonary artery, out of site of the surgical team. A subsequent X-ray showed the thin blade precariously lodged at the bifurcation of the pulmonary artery. An attempt was made at a subsequent session, with cardiac pump support, to retrieve the blade, but the patient died. There was a hullabaloo in the press and various inquiries were initiated. The fault was pointed at faulty equipment and the surgeon and his team was exonerated of blame.

            At a subsequent socialite dinner in Colombo 7, this particular surgeon whose name had been splashed in the papers, was introduced to a flashy female of the trendy, Colombo 7 circle. She had promptly asked 'Ah, so you are the famous so and so. Can you tell me why you dropped the blade into the heart, during that operation?'

            I asked the surgeon who related this story to me, what his response was. He said he pretended not to hear the question and moved away to talk to another guest. Such is life for a surgeon in Sri-Lanka.           

The value of a stethoscope

            During a ward class in Kandy for the medical students, a consultant surgeon had shown an aneurysm in the thigh. He had then asked the students 'What is the value of a stethoscope here?' Promptly one of those eager students and put up his hand and said Rs80/=, Sir?' The surgeon, who saw the funny side of things, guffawed in laughter and said 'Say that again. Say that again.' The student subsequently became a Psychiatrist in the USA and is now dead and gone. He was much junior to our Colombo batch.

The slipping Rambuttan seed in the oesophagus

            When I was Consultant Surgeon at the NHSL in the late 1990’s, I was very friendly with Mr.Rudra Rasaratnam FRCS, Consultant Thoracic Surgeon. He helped me a lot in the surgery of cancer of the esophagus which was my special interest.

            One day he told me that he had a patient who had swallowed a ‘rambuttan seed’. This was stuck in the esophagus. He had used a rigid esophagoscope, under GA, to visualize the seed in the esophagus. When he applied the forceps at the distal end of the esophagus on the slippery rambuttan seed, it slipped away but still remained in the esophagus unable to go beyond.

            I asked him to send the patient to the OT at 2pm that day and Rudy promised to come and help me in the OT. I went to the OT at about 1.45pm. The patient and anesthetist were there. I got the patient lying supine on the operating table. I tilted the table head low. I got the thickest size Fogarty catheter, which is used to remove vascular emboli. I got the anesthetist to visualize the larynx with the laryngoscope and guide the the Fogarty catheter tip, passed per os, into the esophageal opening. I then pushed the Fogarty catheter till I felt I had passed enough of it so that its tip was in the stomach. Then I inflated the ballon of the Fogarty to the maximum and gently pulled it up. I asked the anesthetist to watch through the laryngoscope. When the slippery rambuttan seed came into the pharynx she grabbed it easily with the McGill forceps. We were out with no anaesthesis and no cutting.

            When Rudy came at 2pm I told him the job was over and explained the way I got it out. He told me that I was a wizard.