A heartfelt thank you as dedicated liver care facility becomes a reality
There was a buzz not a major tamasha about a month ago at an innocuous gate sandwiched between the Colombo North Teaching Hospital and the Faculty of Medicine, Ragama, of the University of Kelaniya.
As guests including families with babies drifted in, two poignant moments were the highlights – a mother carrying her baby offering a bouquet of bright flowers with tears of joy, to a Very Important Person (VIP) and the VIP verbalizing what he felt about the work happening at the Colombo North Centre for Liver Diseases (CNCLD), Ragama, through one sentence.
While the official opening of the CNCLD’s M.H. Omar Liver Care Facility will take place under the patronage of President Ranil Wickremesinghe next Tuesday (March 26), it was on February 14 that there was a felicitation of none other than well-known business veteran M.H. Omar, who along with his family all of Brandix apparel fame, made this facility a reality.
“Thank you all of you, thank you very, very much,” said Mr. Omar to the multidisciplinary team saving precious lives of adults and children through complex liver transplant surgeries. He did not refer to the mind-blowing donation of around Rs. 2.5 billion (not million but billion, many doctors stressed to the Sunday Times) by the M.H. Omar Foundation.
Many other speakers, however, reiterated what a “great and good man” Mr. Omar is.
The impact on the poorest of the poor in Sri Lanka not only from the past work of saving lives through liver transplants amidst numerous challenges and lack of facilities by the CNCLD team but also the benefit of having a state-of-the-art M.H. Omar Liver Care Facility flows forth from the tearful mother, Chandula Ruwanthi Asmadala.
The CNCLD’s core team comprises Professor & Consultant Transplant Surgeon, Prof. Rohan Siriwardana; Professor & Consultant Anaesthetist, Prof. Bhaagya Gunetilleke; Senior Lecturer & Consultant Transplant Surgeon, Dr. Suchintha Tillakaratne; Senior Lecturer & Consultant Paediatrician, Dr. Meranthi Fernando; Senior Lecturer & Consultant Radiologist, Dr. Chinthaka Appuhamy; Senior Lecturer & Consultant Transplant Surgeon, Dr. Aruna Weerasuriya; and former Dean Prof. Janaki Hewavisenthi.
“My son Ranuga Shehan was born on December 8, 2021,” says Chandula from Homagama. Happily the family, her husband who has a small tile business and older son, welcomed the newborn and life took on a routine.
Before Ranuga’s first birthday, around November 2022, liver trouble hit. He was not even a year old when he turned yellow and the wheels of the state health sector began whirring when Chandula took him to the Homagama Base Hospital. From there, mother and baby were sent to the Lady Ridgeway Hospital (LRH) for Children, Colombo, and onto the centre of excellence for liver disease, the CNCLD.
“Babage akmava (liver) narakwela (destroyed) thibbe,” says Chandula reliving the family’s nightmare, with Ranuga’s whole body including his eyes turning yellow. He was not feeding, he was fretful and he was passing urine the colour of plain tea.
The moment Ranuga came under the care of the CNCLD’s team, everything fell into place and the little one’s transplant on December 7, 2022, had been performed using part of Chandula’s liver. The baby had been pulled out of the jaws of death.
As the Sunday Times talks to Chandula over the phone this Wednesday, we hear robust cries from Ranuga who is seeking
attention and making no bones about it.
Started in 2011, the CNCLD had initially shared the facilities with other surgical specialties. So far, it has performed 65 adult liver transplants; 18 paediatric live donor liver transplants; more than 500 surgeries for liver cancer; and around 250 interventional radiological procedures linked to the liver. This is while treating around 2,000 outpatients with complex liver disease each year and providing anaesthesia and critical care for those who have undergone adult and paediatric liver surgery including transplants.
The CNCLD has also conducted awardwinning research and is a key centre for both undergraduate and postgraduate training.
The tale of the birth of the M.H. Omar Liver Care Facility begins in 2020. Soon after the first paediatric liver transplant, Prof. Rohan Siriwardana and Prof. Bhaagya Gunetilleke had met Architect Murad Ismail to request him to design a
dedicated liver transplant centre, the team’s ‘dream’ project. The aim was to establish a centre of excellence for training and research, while providing a seamless service to adults and children with liver disease.
With Mr. Ismail’s designs, the team had approached the Finance Ministry Secretary who had readily agreed to approve around Rs. 650 million for the building. But with the country being gripped by the economic crisis, the funding had dried up and the project had stalled. Major efforts to raise funds to equip the building had proved futile.
Around this time, what would turn out to be fortuitous came about. Mr. Omar had commissioned Mr. Ismail to design a nonfee levying transplant hospital and the latter had contacted his friend, Prof. Gunetilleke, for support from the CNCLD team to run that hospital. While giving his wholehearted support on behalf of the team, Prof. Gunetilleke had requested Mr. Ismail to seek Mr. Omar’s support to purchase equipment
for their transplant centre.
Quick had been the nod from Mr. Omar and his family including sons Aslam, Ashroff and Feroze and grandson Hasib – while funding the purchase of equipment, they had also gone beyond the request to provide funds to complete the stalled construction.
Even though no fanfare had been requested, the CNCLD team had commissioned a large painting of Mr. Omar surrounded by children and this hangs on the wall of the M.H. Omar Liver Care Facility. A plaque below the painting just says: “I hope this facility will stand as a reminder to future generations of the good fortune and blessings we were able to share with all our communities and inspire them to continue the legacy of gratitude – M.H. Omar” dated 14.02.2024.
The felicitation in February, meanwhile, was a simple gesture on the part of the CNCLD team to say a very big thank you to the Omar family.