Donation of Medical Devices to Lady Ridgeway Hospital (LRH)

From Left to Right : Venuja Fernando - Medical Student at Karolinska Institute (SLAIS), Dinura Fernando - Medical Student at Karolinska Institue (SLAIS), Dinesh Fernando - Ph.D. (SLAIS Sub Committee Member), Hasanthi Karunasekera - Ph.D. (SLAIS), Dr. Santhushitha Senadipathy - Deputy Director LRH, Dr. Shehan Perera - Consultant Pediatric Cardiologist LRH, Mr. Nissanka - Perfusionist LRH, Dr. Mrs. Asanka Hemachandra - Consultant Anaesthetist LRH, Ms. Dushanthi - Sister in Charge - Cardiac Operating Theater LRH

The Donation

Sri Lanka Association in Sweden (SLAIS) is delighted to inform our generous donors the donation of Sixteen units of Oxygenators and One unit of Hemoconcentrator to Children’s Heart Center at Lady Ridgeway Children’s Hospital (LRH) on 16th August 2022. The total value of the donation was 57,250kr (Rs. 2,202,342).

Those donated medical devices helped continuing heart surgeries without having to stop urgent surgeries even for a day. It had profound impact on children who were in need of Surgical Operations to get back to their healthy lives.

Read Letter of Appriciation from Dr. Santhushitha Senadipathy – Deputy Director of Lady Ridgeway Children Hospital.

Project Background

When economic and political instability in Sri Lanka worsened in April 2022, concerns were raised within Sri Lankan expatriates in Sweden of government’s ability to function hospital normally. As a result of those concerns, few members of Sri Lanka Association in Sweden initiated this fund raising project to assist hospitals in Sri Lanka.

The Fund Raise

Fund raising commenced in mid April and terminated in beginning of June 2022.

The project was published in Facebook, SLAIS website and advertised during “Bakmaha Ullela 2022”. The fund raising was accelerated by reaching out SLAIS members and well-wishes personally.

Majority of the donors were from Sweden; there were few donors from Denmark, UK, US and Australia.

Due to prevailing political situation in Sri Lanka, our members and well-wishers were split in opinion if it was the right time to help Sri Lanka. This in particular made fund raising quite a challenging task.

Sub Committee Proceedings

Following alternatives for supplying/donating medicine/medical devices were proposed/investigated.

Donate to Government Medical Supplies Division.
Sri Lanka College of Internal Medicine channel for Donation handling.
Ceylon College of Physicians channel for Donation handling.
Donate to Cancer Hospital Maharagama.
Donate to Lady Ridgeway Children’s Hospital.

Lady Ridgeway was chosen as the preferred receiver of our donations.

Following donation proposals were received from Lady Ridgeway Children Hospital.

Patent Ductus Arteriosus (PDA) Devices
Spare parts from Dräger – Germany to repair a High End Sophisticated Anesthetic Workstation used in Cardiac Theatres.
Oxygenators and Hemoconcentrators.

Committee spent considerable effort to procure PDA devices. It includes possibility to purchase from manufacturers/suppliers in US, Thailand, China, India, Sri Lanka. However it turned out to be impossible to procure those devices due to economic instability in Sri Lanka.

Donating Oxygenators and Hemoconcentrators turned out to be the feasible alternative.

Sub Committee consistently listened to opinions of our donors. Sub Committee Members held diverse opinions in number of decisions. Consensus were reached after dialog. Nearly all decisions were unanimous with zero descends.

Acknowledgements

There were many enthusiastic individuals that helped the committee along the way to make the project a success. In particular, we would like to sincerely thank,

Adrian Basnayake – Chairman / MD ABC Pharma Services Pvt. Ltd. for presenting medical supply status in April and proposing alternatives for donation planning.
Saveen Thathsara for preparing “Assist Sri Lanka 2022” information leaflets.
Embassy of Sri Lanka in China for finding facts of medical devices from Chinese Manufacturers.
Delan Terumo and team at Hemas Sergicals and Diagnostics Pvt. Ltd. for supplying medical devices and coordinating the donation process with the Lady Ridgway Hospital (LRH).

Our sincere gratitude goes to H.E. Dharshana M. Perera the Ambassador of Sri Lanka in Sweden and staff at Embassy of Sri Lanka in Sweden for guidance and support offered at key junctions of the project.

Our heartfelt gratitude goes to Dr. Shehan Perera – Consultant Pediatric Cardiologist at LRH for informing us the medical devices in short supply, explaining the details of the devices, how such supplies would benefit child patients and functioning of the hospital at large. We were amazed to see your dedication to find medical devices in short supply during these challenging times to continuously perform much needed surgical operations.

Finally, for all donors of this project, you made this charitable project a reality. Thank you!