He leaves a great void in the hearts of family, friends, colleagues and world of neurology

The Royal College Old Boys’ East Coast Foundation (RCOBECF) USA recently mourned the passing away of its oldest member – Dr. Mahendra Somasundaram in New York. Mahendra attended primary school at St. Patrick’s College, Jaffna, and then secondary school at Royal College Colombo till 1949. His full education at Royal College was covered by a Governor’s Scholarship. He received two double promotions at Royal and so entered the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Ceylon (Sri Lanka) at the age of 17 years.

He won many awards at Medical School including the Je Boey Scholarship for best performance in the 1st MB exam and the Hazare Prize for best performance in Year 3. He was first in his class for the first four years in Medical School. He qualified in March 1955, two years younger than his classmates, graduating with First Class Honours.

Following graduation, he was a House Officer at Colombo General Hospital and then Registrar to the Professor of Medicine for nearly three years He was then posted to Ratnapura Provincial Hospital as a Visiting Physician and left for the UK in 1962. In London he received his MRCP (Member of the Royal College of Physicians) in 1963.

In 1965, while working in the UK, he was recruited as Senior Lecturer in Medicine at the University of Malaya in Malaysia. He developed an interest in Neurology and was awarded a scholarship to the University of Washington, Seattle in 1967 to work with Prof. Emilio Chatrian in Neurophysiology.

He returned to the University of Malaya a year later and in 1970 went back to the US to start a Neurology Residency with two pillars in Neurology, Professor Plum and Professor Posner at New York Cornell University Hospital.

In 1974 I met Mahendra at New York Hospital while attending a neurology conference. At this time SUNY Downstate created a new Department of Neurology with Prof. Henry Schutta from UPenn as its Chairman. The programme was enhanced by the recruitment of Prof. Roger Cracco from Jefferson to head Neurophysiology and Prof. Arthur Rose from Albert Einstein for Pediatric Neurology. Upon hearing about Mahendra, Dr. Schutta requested that I arrange a meeting with him. Mahendra was promptly hired and made the Director of Neurology at SUNY Downstate - Kings County Hospital Centre in Brooklyn NY.

Mahendra who was known as Dr. Soma by all his residents and students served as a teacher cum clinician for over 30 years. He continued to see patients and teach residents well into his eighties. Gentle, sincere and devoted to his patients, he received many accolades including the prestigious ‘Distinguished Teaching Professor’ at SUNY Downstate in 1994.

He was described by his residents as a very humble man, much respected and revered by students, trainees, residents and colleagues. Some of his residents are Chairmen of Departments both in NY and NJ continuing the tradition.

On his 80th birthday Dr. Radha Giridharan, a former resident and colleague arranged a birthday party. It was a ‘sold-out’ event with speakers extolling his humane qualities and how he touched their lives and shaped their careers. I attended this event with two other Neurologists – Dr. Sanath Nallainathan and Dr. Miran Salgado, both Old Royalists and past-presidents of RCOBECF.

Mahendra Somasundaram M.D has left a tremendous void in the hearts of many colleagues, friends and family and the world of Neurology at large. He is predeceased by his wife Padma and leaves behind three daughters (Narmadha, Pamathi and Manjula) and two grandchildren Jothi and Vikram, the love of his life.

May he attain Moksha.