Dr.P.A.P.Joseph was a consultant
surgeon at the General Hospital Kandy in the 1970's. I trained as surgical
registrar under him. He was well read and good in his English. He always had
quotations from English literature on various topics.
One
day he invited me for dinner at his house in Kandy. I went to his house for
dinner. There were a lot of items in the living room as show pieces. I was
attracted by a leopard skin which was mounted very well, hanging on the wall. I asked him how he got
it.
He
said that he was DMO at Moneragala in the early years of his medical career. A child was brought to him with severe
burns. He had used on him the latest treatment available at that time -
"M&B powder". May and Baker had produced the first antimicrobials
called "Sulpha's" at that time. This was available in powder form to
apply to wounds. Dr. Joseph had used this on the patient. The child had
recovered.
The
father of the child had subsequently come to see Dr.Joseph. He had told him
"Sir, you have done your best and saved my child. I will repay you with a
gift that you will treasure" and had taken his leave.
A
few weeks later he had brought a biggish parcel. He said that he was a good
hunter. He had tracked a leopard and shot him. He said the shot was fired so
that the mark would not show on the mounted skin. He opened the parcel and
displayed the specimen. Dr.Joseph got the specimen mounted and that was the one
on display in his sitting room.
By
our present day medical standards, 'Sulpha-powder' is not recommended for application
on wounds, because of causing hypersensitivity and promoting emergence of
resistant strains of pathogenic bacteria. Neither is shooting of leopards,
which is an endangered, protected species in present day Sri-Lanka. But this was the era,
when white hunters used to shoot male elephants, to obtain the skin of the
penis, as a prized trophy. This tube of skin was closed at one end and used as
a bag, to carry golf balls, during a game of golf. This proclaimed to all and
sundry that the owner was a golfer AND a big game hunter.
This was around 1980. I was 14 years old. My third right toe nail got infected so badly, once the abscess wa drained the bone was visible. The GP , a good friend of my parents, very reluctantly informed my parents that half of my toe would have to go. Aghast, my parents consulted Dr PAP Joseph. He smiled at my distraught parents and said, "...don't you worry, Mr and Mrs Weerakkody, AMPUTATION IS ACCEPTING DEFEAT IN SURGERY. We'll see what we can do to save this..." He applied a novel kind of dressing at that time - the medicated gauze, or tulle, to my "bone exposed" toe and gave anti biotics ( I don't recollect exactly what) to swallow. Miraculously my toe healed completely and to full strength and in next to no time the toe nail too grew pink and we'll shaped. I can't but help compare Dr. Joseph with today's "blade happy" brigade who wouldn't think twice to manufacture reasons to cut and chop! R P.Weerakkody. Kalutara.
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