dear ko TOKM & stan,
dr kanbawza khin hlaing M.B.,B.S.(Rangoon),F.R.C.S.(Edin) has two
attributes that are different from other physician_writers;his poetic
pseudonym is his real name and he lives in the place of his birth
(northern shan state) continuously since birth with the exceptions of
times spent for training or travels.he may be said to be more
attached to his native place than us.
many people think kanbawza khin hlaing is a lady for his beautiful
and poetic name and many wonders how he got that name. as a matter of
fact he got his name in the medical college in rangoon when he found
there were three khin hlaings in his class.so, one khin hlaing used
his christian name added to his khin hlaing and became douglas khin
hlaing, the public heath specialist (professor at IM2)and a close
friend of mine.another khin hlaing has no other name, but saya
kanbawza khin hlaing's father owned the kanbawza workshop for repair
of cars and he was born in kyaukme, northern shan state, kanbawza, so
he said he would change his name officially to kanbawza khin
hlaing.so he got his name and pseudonym at the same time!
dr khin ma gyi, retired professor of pharmacology, told us that
when she boarded tha BOAC plane in 1965 for her further study to uk
she found so many parcels and packages marked "K.K.Hlaing".she asked
her companions in burmese on the plane who this kkhlaing was and
joked that she must be a populay beauty to have such a large
collection of parcels. she then heard a male voice " don't be angry
with me daw khin ma gyi, friends and patients sent so many presents
and parcels to me and i could not refuse them.k.k.hlaing is me, your
friend kanbawza khin hlaing."dr khin ma gyi was taken aback and had
to apologise and she laughed!
kanzawza khin hlaing is a jolly man and always has a sense of
humour.he said that he knew nothing more than what saya u kyee paw
and saya u kyaw maung had taught him in rangoon when he passed the
FRCS examination in edinburgh.he told me he did not like to say any
thing at the burma state scholars conference in london in 1967
because he knew nothing about higher education in in the UK when i
was the general secretary of the medical section and invited him to
speak.but,he talked at length all about his surgical failures at the
first burma's surgeons conference in rangoon in 1973 or 74 when i
read a paper on the anatomy of micturition, ureteric reflux and
urinary incontinence.all the attendants, his surgical colleagues
laughed wholeheartedly for his honest and sense of humour.even saygyi
u kyee paw, the president of the conference and professor of surgey,
laughed.many would talk about his paper with their own experiences
added on during the coference and after.
but, in reality, he is a good surgeon.he operated on a large numbe
of patient in his lashio hospital.many are still remembering his
services and expertise.many former patients said they were saved by
dr kanbawza khin hlaing.he treats not only surgical patients but also
other patients like those suffering from malaria, malnutrition, renal
failure and so on.he is now writing his experiences in the month;y
kalyar magazine. i always read them.
we know each other long ago.i invited him to write in my magazine ,"
the medical magazine (say-pyin-nyar magazine)" issued by the ministry
of health.i was the chief editor appointed by the minister for health
u saw tun.dr kanbawza khin hlaing wrote regularly and i published
them every month until i left rangoon in 1998.he had already sent me
a collection of his articls that could be used for many months and i
had to return them to him before i left burma.i sent the royalties of
his articles to him by money order every month and he acknowledged
the receipts. he stated that he did not need money from his writings
but he appreciated my efforts.
he writes on common diseases in simple, easily understandable burme
with a style of his own.many readres like them.for example he would
write about a rich person eating, drinking and happy-go-lucy.one day
he fell unconsciuos and he arrived at his hospital being carried by
his relatives.his wife was anxious, crying and she would spare no
money to get him revived.he examined him, found the cause as due to
uncontrolled essential hypertension and he would revive him.he then
write about the causes of hypertension, its signs and symptomes, the
preferable life style changes and its complications like stroke and
its preventive measures. the reader gets complete health education
on hypertension in one reading, in one article.
dr kanbawza khin hlaing was once offerred the post of professor of
surgery and he refused saying that he was not fit to be aprofessor.he
replied to dr maung maung sein, the director gneral of medical
eduction at that time, that he had been away from the academic world
since his passing of FRCS examination in 1967 and that he was now
practising rural surgery. he therefore did not think competent to be
a professor of surgery. and when six house officers under his charge
practised ourside their duty hours in lashio against the goverment
regulations he wrote to the DG that he was sympathetic to their
plight and he supported them as they could not nsurvive on the house
surgeon pays and they must have extra income to support their
training.such is dr kanbawza khinn hlaing, outright honest,
compassionate and truthful!
he is still parctising medicine, i mean surgery, and still writing
health education articles in the kalyar magazine.he was born in
northern shan state, raised there and still practising there. dr
gordon seagrave was an american, founded the famed namkham hospital
just before the second world war and he himself became famous as
the "
trained many nurses there.but he left just after burma's independence
due to some misunderstanding between him the burmese government.but,
dr kanbawza khin hlaing never leaves his place of birth.he loves his
native place and native people.he is treating them, educating them
and writing articles on them.so, is it appropriate to call him the "
gordon seagrave of lashio? i think so, maybe he deserves more than
that.
yours sincerely,
dr maung maung nyo