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Dr. Priyanka Prasad Jayasinghe:
Irreparable loss
Dr. Priyanka Prasad Jayasinghe, a highly respected medical
professional in the Karandeniya area was brutally gunned down on
September 29. Thanks to the timely action of the Criminal Investigation
Department and the Karandeniya police, the killers were brought to book
within a few weeks. Yet, I can not understand how they made up their
mind to kill a harmless person like Dr. Jayasinghe.
Dr. Jayasinghe was a very amiable person who was kind and sympathetic
not only towards his patients but also to everybody who associated him.
He was born in 1971 as the eldest child in a family of three sons.
Dharmadasa Jayasinghe, his father who was a graduate and a principal was
a highly respected person in the Karandeniya area. He resigned from the
public service to engage in politics. Subsequently, he became a district
development council member of JVP for Galle district.
Having passed the year five scholarship examination, Priyanka
Jayasinghe was admitted to Ananda Collage, Colombo to pursue his
secondary education. There he excelled in both studies and
extra-curricular activities. On completion of his school education, he
gained admission to the Medical College, Colombo fulfilling his
childhood dream to become a doctor. After he completed the final
examination of the medical college, he did his internship at Sri
Jayewardenepura Hospital.
After a short stint there, he decided to come back to his native
place Karandeniya to serve the people whom he loved, which is a very
rare occurrence nowadays since most of the professionals prefer to
settle down in cities for better prospects. In contrast, Dr. Jayasinghe
served in his native village quite contently. He was a doctor who
listened to the patients patiently and attended them irrespective of
cast, creed, religion and class. When he started a private practice to
extend his services he became popular. He did not charge a fee from
members of the clergy, security forces personnel and poor patients. He
sometimes gave money to them to buy medicines. When there was a patient
who was invalid, he used to visit them at their residences without
charging an additional fee.
He was my father's doctor until my father's death. When he saw the
difficulties that my father had to undergo to visit his dispensary, he
advised us not to bother to take my father to him. Instead he visited
him at our residence. He did no charge a cent for consultation or
travelling.
Recently, he had opened a channelling service to provide services of
reputed medical specialists and consultants paving the way to have those
facilities to the patients at their doorsteps. Otherwise, they were to
go either to Colombo or Galle.
Dr. Jayasinghe shunned politics. That would have been due to the
difficulties experienced by his family due to his father's politics. Dr.
Jayasinghe's family has inherited a large acreage of cinnamon and paddy
lands from his maternal side.
His father's politics has left him with only about one acre of land
where his house now stands.
Dr. Jayasinghe's demise is an irreparable loss not only to his family
members, friends and patients but also to the entire country as well.
May he attain Nibbana.
Jayantha Jayaweera, Attorney-at-law
Karandeniya |
