Bora's Banter Series

 

Series 1, No 1 October 5th 2020

Note by the Editor: This is the first of a new series featuring the inimitable Harsha Boralessa aka “Bora”, who has the knack of recalling humorous incidents “like no other”.

A batchmate ahead of his time…….

This story was related by a batchmate who attended a tutorial given by Prof Dissanayake to a group of students who needed to be galvanized before the exams in 1966. He discussed and asked questions on the transmission of malaria. The interesting part was the answer given by a student. possibly about P Ovale which is prevalent in Africa, but was at the time, being detected sporadically in Sri Lanka.

The student said that the infected mosquitoes  board the  VC 10  in Nairobi and leave the aircraft at Ratmalana  and  are let loose, to transmit the parasite to people in Sri Lanka.

At the time, the thought of mosquitoes travelling in aircrafts was unheard of and so preposterous that the whole group, including the Prof, burst into fits of laughter. So much so, when Prof asked him, in light-hearted vein, “What do the mosquitoes feed on during the six-hour flight”?  “Orange juice” was his answer. At the time we found this entire interaction hilarious, but it was soon forgotten.

However decades later ….in 1990s, it all came back, when I read an article in the BMJ entitled “Airport Malaria”. Five locals born in England and who had never been abroad, all living within a five-mile radius of London Gatwick Airport had confirmed malaria infection.

After much debate and discussion, the conclusion was that mosquitoes do travel in aircrafts. Following this finding, the fumigation of aircrafts before take-off commenced.

It is a great pity that I cannot remember the name of this batchmate of ours who had this brilliant original thought that provoked so much amusement.

Haemorrhoids……A Misdiagnosis

Remember the surgical wards at the GHC (now NHSL) with broad corridors and well-maintained lawns between wards? A newly appointed consultant surgeon followed by his entourage of medical students was walking towards his ward when he spotted a man on the lawn in a squatting position (legs flexed at the knees, buttocks almost touching the ground and arms folded in front of the chest), in Sinhalese referred to as “Anna gahagena innawa ”.

The boss stopped abruptly and exclaimed “typical posture for someone with piles”, hoping to instil in his students the value of observation. He then pointed to B.L. Perera who was tasked with asking the man the relevant “leading questions” to confirm his diagnosis. 

On being quizzed the man replied that he had no such ailment and was merely waiting to take “Simon Aiyah home on his discharge from the ward!”.

Internship

I started my internship at General Hospital Colombo under Dr John Rasamuthu Wilson - a former Royal college cricket captain, a gentleman to the core and a very kind person.

During my first ward round, he discharged three patients to be sent home on ADT. Throughout the ward round, I was trying to work out “what the hell this was”!. I kept asking myself, how is it that I do not have a clue about this common drug which had been prescribed to three patients. All three patients had vague symptoms and no specific diagnosis. Could A.D.T be a mnemonic?

I couldn’t concentrate on the ward round and whispering quietly, asked the sister, “What is ADT?”

She replied, “That means “Any Damn Thing”.

Await the next instalment of Bora’s Banter soon!