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Pratha retires – at 82

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Patricia Gill, Denmark Bulletin

Dr Pratha Prathalingam shrugs off working until 82 as ‘easy’ because he has loved his job. “It’s never been a burden to me,” says the Sri Lankan born ‘Pratha’ who was recruited from eSwatini (Zwaziland) to come to Australia via the forerunner organisation to the State Government’s Rural Health West.

He was sent to Denmark for six months in 1999 and with wife Thanga has stayed in the town since. Educated in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Pratha attended a world leader among medical schools, University College London and UCL Hospital later working on the academic staff.

He and Sir Lankan born and raised Thanga married in 1968 in their home country after the British Consul had invited her to dance in the UK where they met.

Thanga is an internationally-famous Classical South Indian dancer. She and Pratha have two children, a daughter Radhika, 52, and son, Dharshan, 49.

In their retirement they plan to live like ‘birds of migration’, spending half their time in Sri Lanka and the UK where the children live.

Having worked in Zambia as a student, Pratha decided that he would be more useful there than in academia.

Pratha recalls ‘mixed reception’ as town’s first non-Aussie doctor

This led to a 12-year stint where he managed a 106-bed ‘proper’ hospital and was responsible for surgery, obstetrics and general medicine. During his time in Africa, he honed his understanding of tropical diseases.

Pratha says the best aspect of his medical career has been dealing with patients and adopting his alma mater’s motto, ‘Science is short, art is long’.

“It was drilled into us the day we started medical school that we dealt with people with diseases not diseases with people,” Pratha said.

“Understanding the person and their history helps in making a diagnosis of disease related to a person, rather than a person related to a disease.”

But Pratha says this approach has changed from the time when doctors referred to and remembered what they looked up in text books.

“If we wanted to fi nd out something we had to get up and go to the library,” he said.

“We learned to rely on our knowledge and to pick anything up by reading the books.

“We didn’t have a computer to press the buttons and you’ve got all your diagnoses.”

Pratha and Thanga leave Denmark with mixed feeling, sorry to leave behind a circle of good friends.

He admits to facing difficulties in being the first non-Australian practitioner in Denmark. “At the beginning there were some very mixed receptions though that’s settled down now; but not altogether,” he said.

“I was told just the other day that I couldn’t communicate in English. I said: ‘Of course I don’t speak English at all’.”

Recently, someone of British origin told him that they only went to Australian-trained doctors.

Pratha told the person that they were fortunate that in the practice all were Australian-trained doctors and though one wasn’t that one was trained in London.

He said that rather than being shocked he was amused and that this experience has not been confined to Australia.

Denmark Bulletin 13 October 2022

This article appeared in the Denmark Bulletin, 13 October 2022.

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