Then there was the case of 7 year old Anjana (Patient 89), who came out of the theatre with some wires protruding, had to be paced externally and needed a pacemaker to be fitted. This was costly, about Rs 350,000.00 if done in a  private hospital in Colombo. I interviewed the father, to ascertain if he was capable of raising the funds, he was an Army Corporal, who had been informed about the additional treatment required - not offered by our team, he came in with a sombre, worried look, after a couple of moments of listening to his life history, he had blown off one of his legs by stepping on a land mine and now been fitted with an artificial leg and rehabilitated to carry out light duties. His looks said it all, I had a word across the floor with Dr Simpson who gave me the nod, we decided to pay for the pacemaker, as there was no point doing things in half measures.

A few moments later our visitors arrived, they had been with us at the reception the previous evening, and stayed overnight. They were officials from the Association of British Residents in Sri Lanka. Val & Shanthi Jayakody, Sue Harrison, Anne Town having given a ‘guided tour’, and informed about Anjana’s case, they were glad to sponsor the costs, cheques for the sum of Rs 325,000.00 from ABR and Rs 250,000.00 from Anne Town were presented to us and accepted by Mr Austin & Dr Simpson.

The pacemaker was imported specially thanks to Carlyle de Zilva from Ceegeez, and Cardiophysist Dr Duminda Samarasinghe at LRH for an early implant. The child returned home safely on 14th November 2009. Thanks to ABR who were having a fund raising ball on 7th November 2009.