Buddhika Amodani Lamabadusuriya was a visiting physician at the Base Hospital, Homagama, Sri Lanka. She was born Buddhika Amodani Ediriwickreme in Ceylon, the daughter of Romie Ediriwickreme, a civil servant, and Ellen Caroline Nita Ediriwickreme née Jayawardena, a teacher. She was educated at the Buddhist Ladies’ College in Colombo, and then went on to study medicine at the University of Ceylon at Peradeniya. She gained her MB BS in 1972 with distinctions in microbiology and in gynaecology and obstetrics.
From 1972 to 1979 she held junior posts in Colombo, at Lady Ridgeway, De Soysa, General and Colombo South hospitals.
From July 1979 to 1980 she was on overseas study leave in the UK. She was a senior house officer at the Pilgrim Hospital, Boston, Lincolnshire, and then at the Joyce Green Hospital in Dartford, Kent. She gained her MRCP in 1980 at the first attempt.
She returned to Sri Lanka in 1980, as a visiting physician in the outpatients’ department at the Teaching Hospital, Galle. From 1989 to 1992 she was a visiting physician at the District Hospital, Homagama. In July 1992, she became a visiting physician in the outpatients’ department, National Hospital, Colombo.
In April 1996 she went back to the UK, where she held several locum appointments, covering specialties including geriatrics, neurorehabilitation and rheumatology in Brighton, Chichester, Barnstaple, Leeds, Dorset, Rotherham and Grimsby. From April to October 1997 she was a staff grade physician in the care of the elderly at Brighton General Hospital.
She then returned to Sri Lanka, where she was acting visiting physician at the National Hospital, Colombo. From May 1999 to April 2000 she was a visiting physician at the Infectious Diseases Hospital, Angoda. She then became a visiting physician at the Base Hospital, Homagama.
From 1999 to 2000 she was a member of the AIDS advisory committee, Ministry of Health in Sri Lanka. She taught undergraduates and postgraduates in the teaching hospitals of Galle and Colombo, and was an examiner for the final MB BS examinations for the universities of Ruhuna and Colombo.
Outside medicine, she enjoyed reading, cooking and sewing, and was interested in social work and Buddhism. She was a member of the Wildlife and Nature Protection Society of Sri Lanka.
In 1976 she married Sunath Punsara Lamabadusuriya, who became senior professor of paediatrics in the faculty of medicine, University of Colombo. They had three children – Shamin, Harshan and Dilusha.
RCP editor
[The Island Online Dr Buddhika Lamabadusuriya 28 December 2013 www.island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=94933 – accessed 9 August 2017; Colombo Med Grads 1962 http://colombomedgrads1962.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/buddhika-lamabadusuriya.html – accessed 9 August 2017]