Adventures in Transport. Suriyakanthie Amarasekera

Adventures in Transport by Suriyakanthie Amarasekera

(This is really interesting, and I urge you to read it right to the end. Speedy)

Suri - then and now

Hi Everybody, I do not have Lama’s fantastic recall of my “Graduation in Transport”. So instead, I thought I would share some of my experiences in transport over the years, which you may find interesting.

Pajero Jeep

"Our first car was a Skoda, which we bought second-hand in 1972". I remember that it broke down at Bambalapitiya junction, when we were on our way to watch a Sinhala Drama at the Elphinstone ( I think it was “Suba saha Yasa”) I was heavily pregnant at the time, but I got down and attempted to push the car, with Mahendra at the wheel. In no time at all, about five males rushed up and helped me. They pushed the car into Laurie's Road, where Dr Kumar Fernando lived, and we proceeded to our destination with time to spare, in a taxi.

"When we went to the UK in 1975, our first car was a Vauxhall Victor with a bench seat in front". I was able to keep my daughter Manique beside me and put the seat belt across both of us while Mahendra was driving. We were delighted to receive an invitation to the Buckingham Palace Garden Party in July 1978. Mahendra drove to Buck House in our trusty old Vauxhall Victor to the allotted car park, and parked among Rolls-Royces, Jaguars and other gleaming posh vehicles. As we got down, steam started pouring out of the bonnet! The cop who was there was very nice and asked if we had come a long way. He said it happened to two other vehicles as well.

He advised us to let the engine cool down and then top up the radiator. We were carrying water in our boot, so we were not worried

"I wanted to get my British Driving License, so I took the U K Driving test" To my utter consternation, I failed it twice! The first time, I admit I was not up to standard. But the second time, I did what I was sure was a perfect run and failed again! The reasons given for failing me were “not keeping well over to the left” (It was a time of closure of schools, and there were children walking on the edge of the road) and “not looking sufficiently in the driving mirror !” I have a wider visual field than usual, probably due to my bone structure, and I don’t have to swivel my head to look in the driving mirror. I found out that this was the same guy who had failed me the first time. Then, to my fury, I found that on the same day, this same chap had passed my British white skinned fellow Anaesthetic Registrar from King's College, who confessed to having driven over the curb, hit a dustbin, and completely fouled up the 3-point manoeuvre.

I also recalled that this chap also asked me whether I can speak and understand English, in spite of the fact that I had been chatting to him while I escorted him to my car, which was parked a little distance away from the test centre, apologising for making him walk in the hot sun! So, I wrote to the Motor Traffic Department, naming him and requesting that they avoid allocating me to him again, as I have reason to believe that he was racially prejudiced. I was so upset that I didn’t want to take the test again, but on second thought, I had never given up on anything in my life, and I didn’t want to do so now. Thank God I passed on my 3^rd attempt. Incidentally, the British Driving Test is the only test\ exam that I failed to pass on the first attempt!

"Mahendra bought me a bright red Datsun 100A (Cherry) in 1978, from another Sri Lankan". I loved it because it was so easy to drive and park. It was a two-door car, so I could put Manique and Shaan in the back seat and not worry that they would fall out. Mahendra meanwhile was given an official car by his company a gleaming black Daimler Sovereign which I was not allowed to touch!

"We had decided to return to Sri Lanka in 1981 and were thinking of disposing of the Datsun, when fate took an unexpected turn". Mahendra used to drive to Kings to pick me up whenever I was working late, and the children loved to jump into the car in their pyjamas. On that fateful day, they were glued to the TV watching one of their favourite programs and refused to accompany Mahendra. On the way to KCH , Mahendra met with a nasty crash . 

A motorcyclist driving in the opposite direction at high speed,

Datsun smash

completely on the wrong side of the road, crashed head-on with our car. The rider was flung up towards the windscreen, bounced off the roof and fell off at the back. Just imagine if his trajectory was just 6 inches lower, a booted, helmeted missile travelling at about 60 mph would have struck Mahendra full on his face and probably broken his neck! The motorbike rider escaped with just a fracture of his Femur, but the car was a right off and had to be towed to the graveyard! I shudder to think what would have happened to the kids had they been in the car, because they would have been thrown forward violently. It was a blessing in disguise, as we got full insurance payment.

"Back in Sri Lanka, we had several vehicles, and in 1985, Mahendra bought a red Pajero Jeep with the distinctive registration number 41 Sri 222 from the then Minister of Sports", Mr. Vincent Perera. It was the very first batch of Pajeros imported to Sri Lanka. It had been registered as a lorry, but I was able to drive it as my British Driving License permitted me to drive heavy vehicles. I remember the first time I drove it to Jayawardanepura Hospital; all the consultants came to the car park to admire it. During the height of JVP activity when they banned public transport on certain days, I used to pick up hospital workers on the way, and once had 15 passengers with me driving, which must be a record. It’s a wonder that I was not shot at!

Suri and Mahendra and red Pajero

"I recall that in the late eighties, St Thomas College had a fundraiser Sponsored Triathlon". They walked from College to SSC, swam a couple of lengths in the pool and cycled back to college. We had a Video Camera (again, one of the first models to be available in SL. It was a huge contraption with a separate battery pack that had to be slung on the shoulder). The Warden, Mr. Neville de Alwis, asked Mahendra to Video record the event. So, I had the privilege of driving the Pajero, with Mahendra sitting at the back with the rear door open, filming. We were able to get a lovely video of the event, which we were privileged to present to the Warden.

"Recalling an amusing anecdote, I remember driving along Alan Avenue (Zoo Road) at 5.00 am to attend to a Caesarian Section", in my Trad Sunny when my headlights caught a huge dog running in the middle of the road. It galloped in front of me for about 100 yards, and suddenly it turned into a garden by the side of the road. The next day, the Newspaper headlines declared that a bear had escaped from the Zoo early in the morning!   Imagine the shock of the house owner when he opened his front door to see a bear in his verandah!!

"As I have mentioned in an earlier entry, I have trouble remembering car registration numbers". Mahendra used his connections as the Chief Legal Officer of the CTB to get me numbers that could be easily remembered, like 6393, 2020, 0505,0606 over the years, whenever we purchased a car using the Doctors Import Permit.

"During the 30-year separatist war, the Jayawardanepura Hospital was identified as the hospital to treat all war casualties". The soldiers were brought on a fixed-wing craft to Ratmalana, and then taken by Ambulance to our hospital. As this caused an unacceptable delay in treating the critically wounded, a Helipad was built on the hospital grounds. 

"One day I got an urgent call around 10.00 pm that several critically injured soldiers had been air lifted and asking me to come asap". I managed to drive to SJGH in Kotte, from Hill Street Dehiwela in 14 minutes flat! Don’t ask me how! The worst injured was a young soldier named Ramawickrama, who had horrendous injuries to his right arm and leg. Everybody present was of the view that the limbs were beyond salvaging and advised the surgeon to amputate both. But we were determined to do better than our best, and after 22 operations, including multiple wound debridements, bone grafting and plating, skin grafting, he walked home with just a slight limp and a 30-degree flexion deformity of his right elbow. The surgeon and I were jubilant! A human side to this saga, Ramawickrama’s girlfriend, fearing that he would end up a cripple, deserted him. Needless to say, he was devastated and became depressed, refused to eat and became suicidal. It took our combined efforts to keep his spirits up. It had a beautiful, happy ending. His Physiotherapist, Renu, fell in love with him, and they got married. With the help of the then army commander Nalin Seneviratne, who was my friend, they were able to emigrate to the USA.

"On the 31st of January 1996, the Tamil Tigers drove a lorry full of explosives into the Central Bank building", in broad daylight, causing extensive damage to it and killing a total of 80 persons, of which 41 were Central Bank employees, and seriously injuring a couple of hundred others. We watched in horror as it was telecast on TV. I was so worried about the safety of my older brother, J ED Karunaratne, who was a Thomian and the Head of Bank Supervision CB . Having failed to contact him by phone, I decided to drive to NHSL to search for him. The scene at NHSL was chaotic. After looking for Aiya in the wards, corridors, and OT lobby in the ETU for almost half an hour, I began to feel desperate. A nurse at the reception of the ETU said, "There are several brought in dead; they are behind that curtain ".

I was summoning up courage to look when I heard a shout, "Madam!" I spun round to see a  Surgical Registrar running towards me. He said that he had met my brother in a medical ward and had been asked to send me a message. I was so relieved. I rushed to the ward to find Aiya, with his face and left axilla covered in bandages, looking rather dazed but conscious and rational. He said he had been sutured by a young doctor, without local anaesthesia, who kept apologising for hurting him, and who said that he has not sutured any patient for many years!  I had no hesitation in deciding to take him to J Pura. So, having failed to get an ambulance for transport, I borrowed a wheelchair and took him to my car. I reclined the passenger seat as far as it would go, and having strapped him in, started driving back to Kotte, with my hazard lights blinking.

"Again, the traffic was unbelievable, but many vehicles gave way, and two young chaps on motorbikes even escorted me part of the way". My colleagues at Jpura, including the surgeon, radiologist, and haematologist, were waiting to help me. Aiya was taken straight to the OT. I anaesthetised him, and it took the surgeon 2 hours to stitch the multiple lacerations on his face. Then he thought it best to have a look at the axillary wound, and to our horror, found that a sharp splinter of glass, triangular in shape and about 4 inches in length, was sitting on his brachial artery, pulsating with every heartbeat. My blood ran cold, to think that just a few mm deeper, would have cost Aiya his life through a massive haemorrhage... and it could have happened even while I was transporting him in my car!

"One Sunday in church during intercessory prayers", the Worship Leader suddenly mentioned our names Mahendra and Kanthie and said that he was moved to pray for our safety in the coming week. Needless to say, I was embarrassed and was actually annoyed that he drew everybody’s attention to us. The very next day Monday, Mahendra picked me up from hospital around 10.00 am (it was a day of the Provincial Council Elections).

"We were driving home along Alan Avenue (Zoo Road)", when a car driven at high speed cut across from a side road (de Sampaya Road ) and hit the passenger side of the car. Mahendra lost control as the steering got locked, and the car was heading straight at a lamp post on the opposite side of the road. I was thrown against the wind screen (silly me I was not wearing a seat belt) I was dazed, and my last conscious thought was that I’ll never see my children again. The car got entangled in the stabilising wire, which cut through the engine and came to a halt just a few inches from the lamp post. I was rushed to SJGH by ambulance and admitted to the ICU unconscious. But thank God, recovered completely with no serious side effects except recurrent headaches which lasted a couple of months. The car was only six months old and was a right off. But we got full insurance payment and were even allowed to import another car using the same import permit. Who says miracles don’t happen!

"I have accompanied critically ill patients needing transport by ambulance several times, both here in Sri Lanka and in the UK." Of these, two instances are worthy of mention. One evening I was gardening, wearing rather tatty clothes and rubber slippers, when I got a frantic call from a Paediatrician, asking me to come asap, because one of his patients had collapsed while in consultation. In those days, I always carried resuscitation equipment in the boot of my car. So, I grabbed my car keys and drove to the Medical Centre Dehiwela in just a few minutes. I found an unconscious cyanosed child who was not breathing. I was able to intubate her, and soon she picked up and became conscious. We decided to admit her to LRH, so I accompanied her in the ambulance (inappropriately dressed as I was). I kept tabs on her over the years and, to my relief, ascertained that she had normal mental and physical development.

"In another rather unusual situation, I was asked by a Neurosurgeon to fly out to the Maldives", to accompany a French Tourist who had had a black out, with a suspected ICH, keep her overnight in the ICU at SJGH, till they organised the Swiss Air Ambulance to take her back to her homeland. So again, I had to accompany the patient with airway equipment on the ready from the Maldives to Sri Lanka and hand her over to the Air Ambulance crew the next day.    

As most of you know, I had a fall in June 2018 and needed a left Total Hip Replacement. I had always had cars with manual gears, but found it difficult to drive after my surgery, so I bought a Toyota Vitz with automatic gears, which is so easy to drive, though it is a much smaller car than I’ve had before.

"Though I’ve had several rides in ambulances, I never bargained that I would be a patient needing Ambulance transport one day". In 2021, I slipped and fell heavily on my operated hip and dislocated my prosthesis. The pain was excruciating, and I just had to lie on the floor till the ambulance came. When the ambulance crew found my BP to be 200/180, they were alarmed and wanted to take me to Colombo South Teaching Hospital, which is only about a 10-minute drive away. I managed to persuade them to take me to SJGH, which is like my second home. I only needed an MUA, though, unlike the first time, I now have a slight limp and a dull ache in my Left hip towards the end of the day. But I can still drive, and I am so happy to be able to help with the transport of the grands, particularly to STC which is so close. 

"However, I’ve given up driving after dark except in an emergency like last month". Shaan gave me a frantic call from the Lionel Wendt Theatre at 6.50 pm asking me to bring in a prop he had left behind - a milk can which he needed to sit on at the start of the song “If I Were a Rich Man” from “Fiddler on the Roof”. The show was due to start at 7.30 pm. I just leapt into the car and drove as fast as I could, praying that I won’t meet with an accident as there was heavy traffic at that time, and praise God, I managed to get to LWT by 7.25pm!

Suri