The scalpel and the sword: A surgeon's stand against injustice

Injustice does not announce itself with fanfare or arrive with pomp and pageantry. It creeps in quietly, through a misplaced appointment letter, a whispered favour, a scholarship advert rewritten in the shadows. It thrives in systems that reward silence and punish integrity. I did not set out to be a fighter. I set out to be a surgeon. But the scalpel in my hand soon became a sword in my heart.

- Dr. M. M. Janapriya

It began in 1974, barely a year after my internship, fresh from earning my Primary FRCS (Eng) through the Royal College of Surgeons exam held in Colombo. This was pre-PGIM era. I applied for a two-year Registrar post in General Surgery at the General Hospital, Colombo, now named, the National Hospital of Sri Lanka. I was a rightful candidate, qualified and ready. But a colleague, ineligible by regulation, was being considered. He hadn't completed the mandatory tenure in his current post. What he had, however, was political influence.

I fought back, not with bitterness, but with resolve. Trade union support added weight to my protest. Eventually, both of us were appointed. It was a compromise, yes. But it was also a message: injustice would not go unchallenged.

Three years later, I was appointed one of the three Registrars in Paediatric Surgery at Lady Ridgeway Hospital for Children. Trainer selection was based on seniority, and I was the seniormost. Yet, one colleague, son of a high official to the National State Assembly (NSA) (a powerful civil service position amongst the parliament staff) received his appointment letter a day earlier, on a Sunday.

That single day's advantage allowed him to secure the trainer of his choice. The manipulation was subtle, but the outcome was irreversible. I protested, but the machinery of influence had already moved on. Dishonesty helps in the short term but it comes around to bite them in the back. (cf. what's happening at the minute to the family riding on the clouds, allegedly, with people's tax money, the Rajapaksas) This man didn't last long in the popular surgical job at LRH.

Senior surgeon literally banished him from the unit for apparently intervening on the wrong side of the chest resulting in a child's death paving way to my rightful position.