Ceremonial Opening of the Live Donor Liver Transplant Theatre
Press Release:
20th February 2025: Today the Philanthropic Construction Charity Trust, completed a project to fit out a secondary theatre at the Epilepsy Building at the National Hospital of Sri Lanka. The new theatre is situated in the adjacent space to the existing theatre in this building and was built to support donor transplant surgeries in particular Live Donor Liver Transplants.
The impetus for the Project was a hospital stay at the National Hospital of Sri Lanka by the late Arch. Susil Weddikkara in April 2024. Following this visit, Prof Chitra Weddikkara wanted to help the National Health Care system and sought the advice of Dr Prabath Kumarasinghe, Consultant Surgeon, who was Arch. Weddikkara’s physician at the time. Dr Kumarasinghe mentioned the benefit a 2nd theatre to support Live Donor Liver Transplants at NHSL, out of this suggestion, this project came about. The project cost was around 30 million rupees, and the theatre was fitted out with a modular system to reduce the time involved in renovating the space. The funding for theatre was raised entirely from donors living in Sri Lanka where most of the donations were from persons in the Construction Industry. The donations included cash contributions and professional expertise.
The ceremonial opening of the theatre occurred at the auspicious time of 9.35am on the 20th of February 2025 at the NHSL. The occasion was graced by Dr Anil Jasinghe, Secretary to the Minister of Health and Mass Media; Mr. Mahinda Siriwardena, Secretary to the Treasury and Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development; Dr Wickremasinghe, Deputy Director General of the National Hospital of Sri Lanka & Prof Chitra Weddikkara, Lead trustee of the Philanthropic Construction Charity Trust. The opening was also attended by esteemed members of the Construction industry; Doctors; Members of the NHSL, Donors and well wishes. Dr Kumarasinghe hopes that with this theatre, the waiting times for Liver and Pancreatic Cancer surgeries and transplant surgeries are reduced and “Live Donor” Liver transplants will become accessible to patients within the National Hospital of Sri Lanka. The project planning took about 10 months, and the project implementation commenced on the 31st of January 2025 and was completed within 16 Days- a very good outcome for the project, given the risks of renovating an existing building. The charity is very pleased with the outcome and hopes it will make a big difference to donor organ transplants.
