Little Hamdi’s death - LRH maintains doctors performed surgery with sincere commitment 

By T. Farook Thajudeen

The Deputy Director of Lady Ridgway Hospital (LRH) Dr. Santhushitha Senapathi provided testimony before the Colombo Chief Magistrate Court yesterday affirming that the doctors who conducted the surgery on three-year-old Hamdi Fazlim had carried out the procedure with utmost dedication and sincerity.

Dr. Senapathi made this statement while providing testimony on behalf of the Director of the Hospital Dr. G. Wijesuriya before Colombo Additional Magistrate Rajindra Jayasuriya.

The doctors had diagnosed Fazlim who was born on 30 August 2020 with acute kidney disease and recommended the removal of the left kidney. According to reports during the operation, Dr. Nalin Wijekoon, who performed the surgery had also removed the healthy right kidney. The child’s parents maintain that while the left kidney was made available for inspection by the parents, the right kidney was not shown to them and has since inexplicably disappeared.

Following the procedure, Fazlim passed away on 27 July at the hospital while awaiting a kidney transplant. 

However, Dr. Senapathi said the surgical team worked with the limited resources at their disposal and the right kidney may have been attached to the left kidney leading it to be unknowingly removed along with the left kidney during the procedure. 

He also claimed that the two doctors including Dr. Nalin Wijekoon who treated Hamdi and later migrated to a foreign country had intended to leave Sri Lanka before the surgery was conducted on the child.