Those of us at the Sri Lanka College of Paediatricians have mulled over and wondered about a decisive occurrence in our country for quite a while. We have searched the medical literature, looked up the history of medicine and even got Artificial Intelligence to do some detective work. All those efforts finally confirmed our wonderful belief; nay a magnificent presupposition, and we now reckon for sure that Sri Lanka has created a first in the annals of paediatric healthcare.
Dr Gamini W. Karunaratne MBBS, MRCS, FRCS, a pioneering and reputed Paediatric Surgeon, was the President of the Sri Lanka Paediatric Association in 1979/1980. That Association came into existence in, and continued from, 1952.
In 1996, the Sri Lanka Paediatric Association was seamlessly merged into, and converted to the Sri Lanka College of Paediatricians. The College then became the legal continuum of the Sri Lanka Paediatric Association. The two became one and the same.
The Commemorative Plaque Now we have in the year 2023/2024, Dr Kosala W. Karunaratne MBBS, DCH, MD(Paediatrics), MRCP(UK), MRCPCH(UK), PGPN(USA), FSLCPaed, son of the late Dr Gamini Karunaratne, as the President of this august institution, 45 years after the time when his father was the President. The father, Dr Gamini Karunaratne was a fantastic Paediatric Surgeon and the son is a reputed Consultant Paediatrician; like Father, like Son.
We have not been able to find any previous instance where a father and son have held the top position.