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HE INSPIRED
THE National Neuroscience Institute (NNI) will always have something to remember Dr Balaji Sadasivan by.
Afew years ago, he willed his medical books and videos of the operations he had carried out to the NNI’s neurosurgery library.
He was Singapore’s first and only US board certified neurosurgeon. Although he stopped practising neurosurgery when he joined politics in 2001, his connection to neurosurgery is still very strong, said Associate Professor Ivan Ng, who is grateful to have worked with Dr Balaji.
“Heis one of the few people who inspired me to do neurosurgery,” he said. Assoc Prof Ng is the head of the neurosurgery departments of both the NNI and the Singapore General Hospital.
“All those years ago, it was him who conceptualised the NNI, together with Dr Lee Wei Ling, the director of NNI.
“He thought it was a good idea to have economies of scale for a complex speciality,” said Assoc Prof Ng, who is also the deputy director of the NNI.
The NNI was incorporated in 1998.
Assoc Prof Ng said that when he joined neurosurgery in 1996, Dr Balaji had already left for private practice. He left in 1994.
“But he always came back to help out. No matter what time we called him, he would come...
“And it was many times that we called him. He was technically a very good surgeon and well published.”
In his neurosurgical practice, Dr Balaji often dealt with complex ethical and medico-legal issues and this prompted him to study law.
He obtained an LLB(a law degree) with honours from the University of London in 1999.
HE SHARED
THE last interview Dr Balaji Sadasivan granted was to the SMA (Singapore Medical Association) News on June 2.
Dr Toh Han Chong, who is the editor of SMA News and head of the medical oncology department at the National Cancer Centre Singapore (NCCS), said that Dr Balaji was very gracious and open.
“He spoke very frankly with us,” said Dr Toh, one of three doctors present at the two-hour interview.
Dr Balaji said in the interview, which was published in the August edition of SMA News, that when his batch entered university, they were immediately politicised.
That was1975, the year student leader Tan Wah Piow was jailed for rioting in the Corporation Drive premises of the Pioneer Industries Employees’ Union.
The student union organised protests against the arrest.
He said in the interview: “I was inmyfirst year of medical school and we were all very upset with the government crackdown on the university student union leadership. So we organised boycotts of classes and protested against the government.”
Dr Balaji was also involved in many hostel activities and was in the annual plays at King Edward VII Hall for three years.
In his third year, his hostel put up three short plays, a comedy, a musical and a tragedy called Welcome to Andromeda in which he played the lead role.
It was directed by the woman who would be his wife, Dr Ma SwanHoo, and that was how they met. She was 19 and he was 20. They have two children.
On May 8, Dr Balaji was conferred an honorary membership in the SMA.
The transcript of the interview with Dr Balaji is at news.sma.org.sg/4208/Feature.pdf
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