Hospital sources confirmed today (29) that the anesthesiologist who underwent the second heart transplant surgery in Sri Lanka, which was performed by a joint team of Sri Lankan and Indian cardiothoracic surgeons, anesthesiologists and other staff at the Colombo National Hospital on March 23rd, has died.
Prior to this surgery, News Wave had made a disclosure related to this and indicated that the services of Mr. Anil Abeywickrama, a heart and thoracic surgeon who successfully performed the first heart transplant surgery in this country, were not available for this surgery.
According to the report at the time, News Wave indicated that even though Mr. Anil Abeywickrama had expressed his willingness to offer his services for the second surgery, the team of specialist doctors at the Colombo National Hospital had refused it.
Even though the Minister of Health and the Director General of Health had approved the intervention of Mr. Anil Abeywickrama, the relevant specialists of the Colombo National Hospital did not like it. However, atl east after the relevant disclosure, if any health authority had intervened, this result might have changed.
It is also surprising that the specialist medical team, which did not involve Dr. Anil Abeywickrama in this operation, has expressed their willingness to perform the operation with Indian doctors. Without mentioning the first operation, this operation, which took place at the Colombo National Hospital, was advertised as the first heart and lung transplant operation.
However, even though excellent accommodation facilities were arranged in Sri Lanka for the concerned Indian specialists and they participated in the surgery, they were abroad by the time the patient died.
Sri Lanka’s first heart transplant surgery was performed on July 7, 2017 under the leadership of heart and thoracic surgeon Dr. Anil Abeywickrama with the dedication of the medical and nursing staff of the Kandy Hospital and it is a fortune of the nation that the patient who underwent a heart transplant is still living healthy.
