News from Newham

Professor Adam Timmis, Emeritus Professor of Cardiology, writes a tribute on Dr Ranjan’s long-spanning career ahead of his retirement in February.

An exceptional person

Ranjan and I go back a long way and I’d like to start by telling you how we met and how Ranjan became a cardiologist at Newham. It was in 1988 – a year after I took up my consultant post – when I was doing my daily CCU ward round. There was a crowd of junior staff round the bed as I listened to a patient’s heart  

“Ah, classic auscultatory signs of LBBB”, I said. 

Of course, this wasn’t strictly true – the signs are quite subtle – but I knew the patient had LBBB because I had looked at the ECG! Anyway, I turned to the junior staff around the bed and said 

“So, what are the auscultatory signs of LBBB?” 

There was no response so I randomly picked on a locum registrar I had never seen before – Dr Ranjadayalan as it turned out – who replied 

“Reverse splitting of the second heart sound?” 

I was quite taken aback. That was the first time anyone had got that question right. Over the next few weeks Ranjan appeared regularly on the CCU ward round and was clearly an exceptional person. 

Co-authored more than 30 academic papers

I managed to persuade Ranjan to be my research fellow and over the next four years he co-authored more than 30 papers, many in top journals including BMJ, Heart and JACC. That was a huge achievement by any standards and these papers came to populate his London University MPhil awarded in 1994. 

Ranjan had everything. He had huge clinical skills (that I’ll come to in a minute) and a research record that many trainee cardiologists would have died for. The problem was that, despite all this, job opportunities were thin on the ground in the 1980s. So, as a stop gap, Ranjan was appointed as a “Staff Physician” in the cardiac department at Newham Hospital. It was three years before a golden opportunity appeared in the shape of a government call for bids to fund a limited number of consultant posts.  The Newham bid - built around the development of a novel open-access chest pain clinic – was successful and Ranjan was appointed to the new post. 

Looking back, I think Ranjan’s appointment was one of the best things that happened to Newham – and to the people of Newham - over the last 30 years. And I say that quite sincerely. Ranjan had everything that makes a top quality doctor. He was supremely knowledgeable about all things cardiological, his clinical skills were exemplary and, on top of all that, he combined empathy with kindness to all his patients. I have often said that, were I to develop heart problems, it’s Ranjan I would want looking after me. 

“No offence but do you mind if I see Dr Ranjan?”

I also need to remind you about another of Ranjan’s outstanding qualities – his work-rate. It put us all to shame! Nothing was ever too much for Ranjan when it came to patient care. Patients who needed his attention got seen on an ad hoc basis almost anytime of day or night. I remember after he had been working with us for two or three years, his sister, who I hadn’t previously met, came to see me to report that Ranjan had taken no holiday at all during that period. I told Ranjan he should take his allotted six weeks a year but I don’t think he ever has. This trust must owe him a couple of years of leave he has never taken.

Let me give you an example of how Ranjan’s patients loved him. For many years I used to share a Wednesday morning clinic with Ranjan. When I went into the waiting area to call for the next patient I have lost count of the number of times they would say “Er... no offence but do you mind if I see Dr Ranjan?” It tells us how much he was valued by his patients. I think we all have a lot to learn from Ranjan’s clinical skills

Writing this citation, I have in front of me an old copy of Ranjan’s CV reminding me of his graduation in Jaffna in 1979 where he spent nearly eight years doing junior jobs, the last of which was Lecturer/Registrar in Medicine in the University Medical Unit Jaffna from 1983-1986. It was during that time that the Sri Lankan civil war drove Ranjan and his family to the UK – and what a contribution he and his siblings have made to our country. 

Truly irreplaceable 

I Googled Ranjan the other day and saw that he was recently one of the keynote speakers at Jaffna Medical Faculty’s Joint Scientific Symposium. The title of his talk was: “Reminiscence of my time in clinical medicine and medical education in Sri Lanka and the UK”.  I would have liked to listen to that talk. Meanwhile, I hope Ranjan’s reminiscences of his time in the UK are as happy as ours are of him. I would like to thank him for all he has done for Newham Hospital and for the cardiology department, in particular. He will be truly irreplaceable.