By John B Monteiro

Mangaluru, Feb 14: Dr Sadashiv Rao Ullal, who passed away on February 10, unnoticed by the media except through an obituary insertion in a leading English daily on February14, had been a pioneer and in the forefront of cardio-thoracic practice in Mangaluru. He was the first to perform an open heart operation in any government hospital in Karnataka. He had been ailing for the last few months and had been hospitalized.

Born on May 28, 1935, Sadashiv was the second of three sons of Manjunath Rao and Kamalabai, with their roots in Ullal. He started his primary school at St Mary's at Mazgoan in Mumbai but within six months was packed off to Mangaluru in the face of apprehended threats of Japanese bombing Mumbai during the Second World War. His mother rented a house in Karangalpady and young Sadashiv went to St Aloysius College, Mangaluru till he passed SSLC in 1950. Then he went back to Mumbai to do Inter-Science at St Xavier’s College. Joining Grant Medical College in 1952, he finished MBBS in 1957 and went on to do MS (surgery), passing in 1960.

The thirst for further medical education took Dr Ullal to UK for training in the speciality of Cardio-thoracic. Concurrently, he was lecturer in St Thomas Hospital, London and also held lecturership in Harefield Hospital on the outskirts of London. During this period, he earned his FRCS in 1963.

Returning to India in 1967, Dr Ullal worked for three years at KMC – Manipal, starting its cardio-thoracic unit. In 1970 he went to USA on an advanced Fellowship in San Francisco and worked for a year doing research in the field of cardiac lymphs under Dr Garbodi, a noted Italian specialist in the field. This also led to the publication of several research papers on his speciality. This was followed by Huntarian Professorship at the Royal College of Surgeons (that grants FRCS).

On return to India in 1972, KMC transferred Dr Ullal as professor of cardio-thoracic and honorary medical officer at Wenlock Hospital. These positions allowed private practice and he set up his consulting chamber on Ganapathy High School Cross Road and did surgeries at Vijaya Clinic, Kadri.

As noted earlier, Dr Ullal was the first to perform, in Wenlock, in 1975, an open heart operation in any government hospital in Karnataka. As a stickler to medical ethics, Dr Ullal would not talk about it, let alone crow, but Dr P N Adiga, the then CMO of Wenlock, called the press in to announce the pioneering breakthrough. He continued such operations also at Vijaya Clinic where he installed a heart-lung machine. He had notched up about 900 open-heart operations till 1983. Dr Ullal also started the cardio-thoracic surgical unit at Father Muller Hospital where he worked for five years from 1975.

Dr Ullal married Sheila, a Sindhi and also a doctor (paediatrician), who had been friends from their Grant Medical College days, in 1968.

Dr Ullal retired from his surgery-filled profession in 2003. He used to have a relaxed routine that included 4 km morning walk, playing badminton, reading, afternoon nap and two hours of bridge playing. He also indulged in monitoring share movements. He was not happy with the crass marketing of medical services, with hospitals getting into competitive mode to project their achievements. According to him, the standard of service was declining and respect for doctors was eroding. He recalled to me that in his early days of open-heart surgery he used to sleep in the hospital overnight to take care of any post-operative emergency.