Man with a mission

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Man with a mission

By THEAN LEE CHENG

leecheng@... SIR ROY Calne is a very special man, with exceptional skills. If it were possible to separate the skills from the man, he would still be special, a man of love and integrity. He has touched many lives around the world. Best known as an eminent transplant surgeon, Calne – who is Professor of Surgery Emeritus at Cambridge – visits Universiti Malaya Medical Centre (UMMC) every three months to help with kidney transplants, and asks for nothing in return. Such is his compassion and generosity.

His friendship with UMMC consultant nephrologist Dr S.Y. Tan is a factor. “He is a very good doctor and has a good team. I would not be doing it if it were not so; the after-care of the patient is very important,” Calne says, while on his way to the airport.

Four times a year, for several years now, he flies into Kuala Lumpur from Singapore (where he is visiting professor at the National University of Singapore) late Friday morning. He stops for lunch at Little Penang in MidValley Mega Mall where he orders a plate of char kway teow with crab meat, otak-otak and cendol, washed down with iced lime. In the afternoon, he sees the doctors, donor and recipient at UMMC. A good part of Saturday morning and afternoon is spent at the hospital. He then leaves for the airport on Sunday morning. During his short but meaningful stay, he plays a game of tennis and makes a trip or two to Raju’s Restaurant in Jalan Cantik, off Jalan Gasing in Petaling Jaya. “I like the ambience with all the different races coming together,” he says, during a meal of deep-fried fish roe, squids and roti canai with dhall. The nurses at UMMC say he is very kind. And his patients are extremely grateful. It is obvious that he is very much loved here.

Calne, 76, first came to South-East Asia as a medical officer with the Royal Army Medical Corps. He was posted to Singapore and Hong Kong. His regiment had a stint in a remote village in Kuala Pilah, Negri Sembilan. He was then in his mid-20s.

Calne has the innate ability and skill to simplify the most complex of subjects; this is obvious in his writing. He has inspired and taught those who have had the pleasure and privilege of his company. However, he is a man of few words – except when it comes to the written word, and when the conversation revolves around medical science. Calne has written many books, both for the layman and for teaching purposes. One of his textbooks on transplantation is in its 12th edition. The colour in his life is most quickly evident in another of his pursuits – paintings. Calne is an artist and sculptor of considerable talent, and is comfortable working with various mediums, from bronze to marble. He will be exhibiting 36 pieces of his paintings and sculptures at The Private Gallery in May next year, to coincide with KL hosting the 11th Asia Pacific Congress of Nephrology (May 5 to 8). He held his first exhibition in the city four years ago. Calne has also undertaken numerous solo and joint events in the United States and Europe. Proceeds from the sale of his works go to charity.

Since the Renaissance, there have been links between artists and doctors, especially surgeons. But they have, by deliberate choice, removed from their easel their professional subject matter, says Calne in one of his books, Art, Surgery and Transplantation.

Medicine and art are disciplines that require the study of the anatomy. Some of the greatest painters were also experts in anatomy and physiology; Leonardo da Vinci is probably the most celebrated example. Although his work in transplantation research took much of his time and energy, he did not give up his interest in aesthetics. It was given a boost in 1988, when ish painter Bellany underwent a liver transplant. That was Calne’s department. Incidentally, Calne is also a pioneer of liver transplant and performed the first such operation in Europe in 1968. Bellany did 60 paintings of himself during his three-week hospital stay. The artist taught the surgeon the use of colour. He also taught Calne two important lessons. “In one of the lessons, I had to paint him. I realised that my depiction of a sick man recovering from a huge operation was very different from his own self-image. It was also a subject nobody had ever painted before.” Calne was challenged by the extreme bravery, suffering, elation and happiness generated by this new form of transplantation.

"I had models who were captive while in a hospital bed and they were often pleased to have the chance to talk about little things that bothered them but would not have time for, if not for the sitting.

“The children, who were generally fearful of doctors and nurses, would relax and we would colour the picture together. The numerous failures in his early days of transplanting kidneys in rats, then dogs, did not deter him. “If I get interested in something which looks to be worth pursuing, I am persistent,” he says. Organ transplantation was a distant dream about 50 years ago. It has since become a major branch of surgery and a form of treatment in the West, and in China and India, where most of the organs are used in medical tourism. Calne began his research on organ transplantation in 1959, nine years after one of his patients – a lad called – died of kidney failure. Calne, then 19, was a medical student at Guy’s Hospital, London. (He had entered medical school at 16.) There are two major areas of transplantation: surgery and immunology. Although the surgery techniques are complex, it is the issue of immunology – or rejection of the new organ – that has caused the greatest difficulties. Anti-rejection drugs are also very expensive. Calne’s work deals with both areas but, to a larger degree, immunology. Calne taught himself the techniques of surgery. In 1960, he became the first to use drugs to control kidney rejection, with the anti-cancer medicine azathioprine and, 20 years later, cyclosporin. His discovery that giving transplant patients azathioprine – which stopped their grafts being rejected – was the main step to the transplantation of other organs, such as the heart and liver. Today, after cyclosporin, Calne’s friends and colleagues in Cambridge have discovered a new drug – Campath. “Like those early days of cyclosporin, gaining acceptance is difficult. Pharmaceutical companies do not like it because it is cheaper and requires a smaller dosage. They do not realise that if they embark on it, eventually there will be a large market. Drugs are so expensive that transplantations are not done,” he says. Calne believes that every body part can be transplanted. He has given talks in government departments in Malaysia about his work. In 1987, he performed the world’s first liver, heart, and lung transplant; in 1992, the first intestinal transplant in Britain; and in 1994, the first successful combined stomach, intestine, pancreas, liver, and kidney cluster transplant. Calne is still working – he now focuses on gene therapy. He has two teams, one in Singapore and the other, Australia. “We are in the early stage of research on how gene therapy can be used to treat diabetes and haemophilia, a hereditary disease which impedes clotting. I have to go back to school to learn these new steps. “I did not go into medicine with a mission. It was more curiosity than inspirational,” Calne says.

http://thestar.com.my/lifestyle/story.asp?file=/2007/5/21/lifefocus/17660021 & sec=lifefocus