Jithangi Wanigasinghe

Recipient of the 2007 Asian-Oceanian Fellowship in Clinical Epileptology

Consultant Paediatric Neurologist, Lady Ridgeway Hospital

Senior Lecturer, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka

It is a great pleasure to send my sincere greetings to the ESA. Thanks to you, I was able to undertake a comprehensive training in paediatric epilepsy. I was fortunate to spend an extra year at the Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne under the guidance of Dr Simon Harvey, who is one of the top paediatric epileptologists in the world. I was exposed to many aspects of paediatric epilepsy. This included clinical exposure to patients with complicated epilepsies, interpreting Electroencephalographies (routine and long term monitoring), invasive monitoring techniques, neruoimaging in epilepsy including SPECT, fMRI and PET (performed at the Austin Hopistal), epilepsy surgery etc. Apart from this, I was also able to complete my research project on ‘Epilepsy in children with hemiplegic cerebral palsy due to perinatal stroke’ during this extended stay offered by the fellowship.

I returned to Sri Lanka as one of the first two paediatric neurologist in my country and presently am serving as a consultant paediatric neurologist at the Lady Ridgeway Hospital in Colombo and as a senior lecturer attached to the University of Colombo. The training and the experience I obtained during this fellowship gave me the confidence to return to my country and take over the daunting task of establishing paediatric neurology care in this hospital. Over the past three months I have been able to offer  outpatient and inpatient neurology care at the hospital,  establish and improve on the EEG facilities available at the hospital, carry out educational workshops to improve the knowledge on epilepsies and EEG amongst paediatricians, physicians and EEG technicians. I have established links with the epilepsy surgery program at the adult neurology unit and contribute to the discussions on paediatric cases. I am also serving as the editor in the newly established Sri Lankan league against Epilepsy.

I am very thankful to the ESA for giving me this wonderful opportunity to train further in paediatric epilepsy. Apart from this great learning opportunity, it also gave me additional time to travel, enjoy life and make new friends in Australia.

Jithangi Wanigasinghe

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