Piyumal Gunawardana , Current Situation

You may remember the email you received regarding the cancer affected engineering undergraduate student Piyumal Gunawardana of University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka. This email is to inform his current situation to you.

Piyumal underwent his surgery at the Gleneagles hospital, Singapore. It was done by a group of doctors lead by Dr. Andrew H. Sea. This surgery took nearly 14 hours to complete. Major intention of this surgery was to remove the cancer tumor from Piyumal. As a result of the surgery his tongue, voice box, jaws(lower pair) and other areas of his mouth which were affected by the cancer were removed. Then muscles were taken from his chest and right thigh, and were planted to compensate the removed areas in his face. Feeding tube was attached for feeding purposes and another tube for breathing (this was attached to his throat). Piyumal was in the intensive care unit for 3 days and then transferred to a normal ward. After about three weeks he was discharged and was taken back to Sri Lanka.

This surgery cost us about 6 million LKR and earlier we had to spend another 3 million on his chemos which were given prior to the surgery. We also had to spend another 1.8 million LKR at an emergency situation where the doctors had to do a sudden surgery on Piyumal. We received a great support from people in Sri Lanka and abroad. Lot of people had responded our email and they contributed in various ways to help Piyumal and his family. We would like to mention all of those who helped us when we needed a lot of support with our heartiest gratitude.

After spending two weeks at Sri Lanka, he was consulted by a doctor and he recommended to give some more chemos (set of injections) to avoid any spreading of the cancer (if it exist any more). He has now given two cycles of chemos at the Oasis hospital, Colombo. Then a CT scan will be done and Piyumal will have to go back to Singapore for consulting the doctor. We have been able to find the money which was needed up to now with your greatest help. After six months Piyumal will undergo another surgery to make up his face to a normal position (That has not been done in the surgery). At the moment he is fed by the tube. He cannot speak because his tongue and the voice box are removed. Doctors will try to fix them at a later time. At the moment our major intention is to save him from the cancer completely.

We would like to thank all of you who helped us in all possible ways. You showed great human qualities by helping us when we were helpless. We owe all of you. We pray the Load Buddha, Jesus, Allah and all the gods to protect you from any trouble.

Please forward this to all whom you think you should.

Contact details of Piyumal’s family

Telephone : +94412228595
+94602405265

Email : piyumal123@yahoo. com

Thanking you,

Piyumal's family.

This message has been sent to me, by Amila Mahaarachchi