Quinine for the 'Gammuladaniya'

 

            He was a retired deputy director of health services and must have been in his eighties. He had come in for an attack of abdominal pain to the casualty ward at the NHSL. I was doing my morning pos- casualty rounds when I met him. He had a certain degree of 'class' about him and was dressed in white satin drill. Once I had examined him and found that he had nothing serious I asked him about the old days of his medical career. I requested him to tell a memorable incident in his career as MO, to the medical students who were around me.

            He was MO at Medagama in the early 1950's. He had a Morris Minor car. One day returning from Buththala a nearby hospital at night, he was confronted by a herd of elephants on the main road. A male tusker in the herd was blocking the road and looked aggressive. He got stayed in the car putting up the windows quickly. The tusker approached the car, went round it. It felt the warmth of the bonnet of the car with the tip of its trunk. Then it literally attempted to sit on the bonnet. When it felt the bonnet sagging down it quickly got up. Our friend the MO meanwhile quickly got out of the car and ran to a nearby culvert, crawled and hid under it. After a long wait the elephants moved away. The MO went back to the car when the coast was clear, quickly started the car and raced it to Medagama his home station. The strongly built Morris Minor had only a minor dent in the bonnet as witness to the incident. Cars were built with gauge 18 steel and were rock steady those days.

            He also related another story. Once he was called to see a village headman, a 'gammuladhaniya', who was suffering from a fever. Our friend had got a syringe and a vial of quinine, put them into his coat pocket and was ready for the trap. He was guided through a foot-path in the jungle. They were merrily walking along when they heard the trumpeting of elephants. His companion said let us run away and quickly started using a side path skirting the one they were traveling in. In the process they had to ford a stream. They ran helter-skelter and came to the headman's house breathless.

            After resting a few minutes, the MO was taken to see the patient. The patient had a high fever with chills and a palpable spleen a sure sign of malaria. Only when he searched his coat pocket did he realize that it was missing. Obviously it had slipped out while running away from the elephants. He had to wait till some-one went to get a syringe and quinine injection from his quarters.