T. Sachithanandan

Dato' Dr. Sachithanandan Thambinathan (born 2 August 1931), better known as T. Sachithanandan, was an eminent pioneering Malaysian doctor (Anaesthesiologist) of Sri Lankan Tamil ancestry.

Born in Kuala Lumpur, he attended Victoria Institution and graduated from the University of Calcutta (MBBS 1957) where he was the Founder President of the International Students Association. During his postgraduate specialist training in anaesthesia in the United Kingdom (1961–64), Sachithanandan trained with several highly eminent pioneering post-war British anaesthesiologists including Dr John Alfred Lee (Southend-on-Sea Hospital), John Francis Nunn (Royal College of Surgeons of England research unit) and Professor Thomas Cecil Gray (Liverpool). He was conferred the F.F.A.R.C.S.I. a Fellowship in Anaesthesia by the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (Dublin 1963) in addition to the D.A (Royal College of Surgeons, England).

In 1964, Sachithanandan and JF Nunn et al. were the first investigators to demonstrate age-dependent airway closure in humans whilst breathing at residual volume. They observed the resulting desaturation was due to perfusion of unventilated alveoli. Their research findings still remains a highly cited British Journal of Anaesthesia publication with important implications for mechanical ventilatory support of the critically ill patient to correct the resulting hypoxaemia and atelectasis from the reduced lung volumes.

Upon returning to Malaysia, Sachithanandan was appointed consultant anaesthesiologist to the Johor Baru General Hospital (since renamed Hospital Sultanah Aminah) where he practised for two periods (1964–71 and 1977–81). His most notable contribution as Johore State Anaesthetist was to establish the first public sector intensive care unit (ICU) in Malaysia in 1968 at the Johor Baru General Hospital (JBGH). This ICU inspired the establishment of similar units in several other state general hospitals nationwide over the next decade. In 2010, Malaysia reported availability of over four hundred operational critical care ICU beds across 36 different government hospitals with a 90% bed occupancy rate.

Sachithanandan and two colleagues (pioneer physician Dr Lim Kee Jin and paediatrician Dr Samuel C.E. Abraham) also established Malaysia’s first postgraduate medical centre at JBGH in 1969. In 1972, Sachithanandan was elected President of the Malaysian Medical Association (the 14th MMA President), the first anaesthetist to hold such office. He served as Chief of Anaesthesiology in Ipoh General Hospital (1972–77) establishing the state’s first postgraduate medical centre in 1976. As the Vice Dean of the inaugural Faculty board (1975–77) and subsequently as Dean of the Faculty of Anaesthesiologists, College of Surgeons of Malaysia (1977–79), he was highly influential in developing local specialist training and accreditation criteria which helped lay the foundation for a future local Masters certification in anaesthesia. Over 450 Malaysian doctors have since successfully completed a masters-certified local postgraduate training programme in anaesthesiology (up till 2008).

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