|
|
|
| Sunday, 24 July 2005 |
 |
|
 |
Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
|
A star reborn Sunday Observer staffer, Ranga Jayasuriya meets the country's foremost composer, Maestro Premasiri Khemadasa who is recovering from a kidney transplant.
The doyen of Sri Lankan music says he is reborn, thanks to a true son of Hippocrates. Recovering from a kidney transplant, maestro Premasiri Khemadasa, the original and foremost composer of contemporary Sri Lankan music, looks as energetic as the uncompromising musician he was in his musical career. The maestro, last month underwent a kidney transplant at the age of 68, generally considered to be too old for a sensitive operation of this nature. And the surgery itself was a miracle.
For Surgeon Dr. P. K. Harischandra of the Kidney Unit of the Kandy Teaching Hospital, who operated on the ageing composer, it was a tough choice. There was always a balance of chance. A normal kidney transplant operation takes one hour, but for the maestro, due to complications of age, it took three and half hours. For five months, the maestro had been undergoing dialyses twice a week at the Jayawardenepura Hospital. It was there that someone told him to try the Kandy Teaching Hospital. He phoned Dr. Harischandra to inquire about the possibility of having a transplant. The doctor was already aware of the condition of health of the musician, through the media. He asked whether the musician could come over to the Kidney Unit. "When the maestro met me, the first thing I asked him was whether he wanted to undergo a transplant. Because of his age, there could have been many implications," says doctor Harischandra. The answer of the musician was in the affirmative. Then, the administration of the Kidney Unit of the Kandy Teaching Hospital - which has a general rule not to operate patients over 60 - decided to waive the rule for the composer. Next, the issue of a kidney donor came up. Two persons who offered to donate a kidney were disqualified at the health check-up. Then a young monk, Gunarathana Thera, who was introduced by the Chief Incumbent of the Ruwan Veli Seya, Pallegama Gunarathana Thera, offered to donate a kidney and was qualified at the health check-up. An Indian medical team who checked the Maestro's medical reports had earlier recommended that he undergo a kidney transplant. But, Dr. Harischandra noticed something strange in the reports and directed the maestro to have an angiogram, a test to check heart arteries and valves. The test showed that two heart valves had been blocked. Had the kidney transplant been done without the heart check-up, it would have had a fatalistic consequence. The doctors recommended him to undergo an angioplasty and it was only that he was fit to undergo the transplant. The transplant itself, a hectic operation took thrice the average time. An internal bleeding, caused by a blood clot resulted in the maestro undergoing a second surgery, the same night. It is little over a month since the transplant, and the maestro was recovering from the operation, and was as energetic as he was before, when he spoke to me at the hospital. He is known for innovation and is not afraid of experiment in music, whether it is opera, symphony, teledrama or cinema.During the tormenting days of suffering from kidney failure, it was self-confidence that helped him cope with the trauma. "I feel like being reborn," Premasiri Khemadasa says. And the first thing he wants is that the dedicated work of the staff at the Kidney Unit, be honoured. The dedication of the staff is unmatched, says the maestro, while recalling some unpleasant experiences he had had at some private hospitals in Colombo. "The doctor visits the ward several times a day, sometimes even at 4 a.m. and he even calls the nurses to check on the health of patients even when he is out," says Khemadasa, referring to Dr. Harischandra. That is a service he had not seen in the private hospitals, which are profit-oriented and where there is very little quality service. Khemadasa agrees that Dr. Harischandra should demand for more funds and facilities to the Kidney Unit. Sitting on his hospital bed, recovering from surgery, maestro Khemadasa says he plans to lead a fund-raising campaign for this purpose. It is equally important, that the government should to direct more resources towards healthcare, he says. A musical master-piece by the country's foremost composer would one day bring more funds and resources to the much needed kidney unit. There is still fire in the man like the fire in his music. **** Maestro Premasiri Khemadasa blended the best of Eastern and Western musical traditions, leading Sri Lankan music to new heights. He is, unquestionably, the original composer of the Sri Lankan music. In 1960, his Beri Sil introduced operative leaning to the Sri Lankan musical scene, followed by Kele Mal (1962), Sea and Sinhala Avuruddha (1965). His music creation for the song Sulang Kurullo in K. A. W. Perera's film, introduced a new trend in sinhala music. His music direction for the theme song in Lester James Peries' film, Golu Hadawatha was a perfect portrayal of the yearnings of two hearts incapable of communicating with each other. His first orchestra, Manasa Vila, as maestro Khemadasa himself described was "an attempt to combine voice, music and drama that creates something that expresses modernised human life and experience. Manasa Vila, first performed in the 1980s, came under criticism of the then government, for a political statement of the orchestra. He devoted a symphony to his mother Mage Kalaye Mavni - mother of my time. (His mother however died a few days before his maiden performance). He formed a philanthropy, the Khemadasa Foundation and today conducts musical lessons free of charge for up and coming musicians. **** Despite resource constraint, the Kidney Unit of the Kandy Teaching Hospital has conducted the highest number of Kidney transplants since it was set up in 2000. Over 200 kidney transplant operations have been conducted so far. The unit performs two kidney transplant operations every week and 20 cases of dialysis a day. Surgeon Dr.P.K. Harischandra says the unit is in need of more funds for the kidney patients. The unit has also set up a 'Donor Program' to help kidney patients to find kidney donors. "This is an important issue in a transplant operation. A Kidney donor has to fulfil a number of health requirements. So it is not easy to find the right kidney," says Dr. Harischandra. Over 5,000 people have so far expressed consent to donate to the 'Donor Program'". The hospital has also started a "Cadaver Program" whereby organs are obtained from bodies within a specific time of his or her death, provided that the immediate relatives of the deceased agrees to donate them. The hospital has so far transplanted four kidneys under the "Cadaver Program". Dr. Harischandra also stresses the need for a hostel for patients coming to the Kidney Unit for dialysis, from far off areas. For all these to be accomplished, the unit needs more funds, he says. |
| News | Business | Features
| Editorial | Security
| Produced by Lake House |
