At many international Cardiology Seminars over the past half century, Tony Don Michael’s contributions to the study and advances in clinical and surgical cardiology have been discussed, analyzed and admired. Elite medical circles in USA and UK are aware that his patented medical and surgical inventions have been superlative and curative aids for cardio vascular diseases. In over 100 informative, published papers on cardiology, Tony has demonstrated his superior knowledge on empirical diagnosis and the art of curing the diseased heart, successfully. While all these tomes have been read and digested by men of medicine, we, the lay apostles of the maestro, can only summarize it all in one word, ‘legendary’.
In spite of all his erudition, Tony would, in true humility consult me for advice on the intricate micro-engineering necessary for transforming his revered medical patents into reality, and the ‘almost nuclear’ clean conditions required during factory production of the hardware. Our lives mingled over the past 75 years, ever since we first met as mischievous students at our alma mater – St. Peter’s College – the Bambalapitiya clique which also included Dion Walles, Nihal Abeysundera, HIK (Herbi) Fernando, Kumar Paul (SNR), Geoff Garnier, Michael Mack, Brian Lawrence and many others always qualified for the cliché, ‘Boys will be boys’. However, Tony, more than all of us, was the exception that proved the rule, always studious, but athletic and cricket mad. My inherent aversion for the sickly odour of formalin and laboratory dissections of rats, frogs and cockroaches, were Tony’s delight. So, his doting father, quick to discover his son’s love for empirical discovery, built an expensive home laboratory for biology experimentation, while yours truly gave the lab a deliberate miss every time he passed it, with a handkerchief over his nose.
Tony, fast grew up to be the indomitable Renaissance Man, a gentlemen to his fingertips, an aesthete admiring all things delectable, a true connoisseur of good wine and cordon-bleu menus, an athletic slim 6 footer, the perfect tailor’s dummy, with a fastidious taste in dress, a Tenor who held his audience spellbound with his magical voice and lyrical operatic Italian fluency, and a dancer whose lithe movements on a ballroom floor, leading his glamorous wife Sharmini, was always a cynosure for all eyes. Tony’s last 18 years were blessed with happiness and the love of his doting Sharmini, who silently and patiently nursed him with loving care right through his terminal illness.
This appreciation, of an exceptional healer among us, will not be complete without reference to his impeccable bedside manners and the deep gratitude of his innumerable patients, for the hours he spent in individual, invaluable and accurate diagnostic excellence, however tired he might often have been, after many gruelling consultation hours.
Thank you, Tony, for your gracious caring of the thousands who came to you for solace and health, and whose hopes you always unstintingly satiated with curative ‘green fingers’. The Almighty has already lovingly welcomed this legendary doctor into eternal glory, and we must give thanks for the good fortune of knowing this extraordinary gentleman.
- MANO CHANMUGAM