Dr Balaji Sadasivan was President of the Asian Australasian Society of Neurological Surgeons from 1999 to 2003. He was President of the Asian Australasian Congress of Neurological Surgery, which was held in Singapore in 2003.
Dr Balaji obtained his medical degree from the University of Singapore in 1979 and obtained his Fellowship of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons, Glasgow, in 1981. He commenced his neurosurgical training at the Tan Tock Seng Hospital in Singapore under Dr Gopal Baratham and Dr Tham Cheok Fai, the early pioneers of Singapore Neurosurgery. He then enrolled into the neurosurgical residency programme at the Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, Michigan, USA, under Professor James Ausman from 1985 to 1990 and was awarded Distinction in his year as Chief Resident. He was board-certified by the American Board of Neurological Surgery, the only neurosurgeon in Singapore to do so. After his residency, he undertook fellowships at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital and the Children’s Hospital in Boston under the mentorship of Professor Peter Black.
He then returned to Singapore where he worked as consultant neurosurgeon in the Neurosurgery Department of Tan Tock Seng Hospital and was responsible for modernising the Department, paving the way for its recognition as a well-known tertiary neurosurgical institution in the region and a key component of the National Neuroscience Institute of Singapore. In particular, he computerised the Neurosurgical Intensive Care Unit (the first of its kind in Asia), started the Acute Stroke Unit for management of patients with acute stroke (now a common practice in many centres), and introduced interstitial brachytherapy for the treatment malignant brain tumours. He was responsible for elevating the status of paediatric neurosurgery to a neurosurgical subspecialty in Singapore and was involved in the planning of the then new children’s hospital (today the KK Women’s & Children’s Hospital). During this time, there was also a governmental move to build a neuroscience centre in Singapore (subsequently known as the National Neuroscience Institute) and Dr Balaji was actively involved in its planning. He also played a very active role in teaching the younger neurosurgical trainees in the Department.
Dr Balaji left Tan Tock Seng Hospital for private practice at the Gleneagles Hospital in 1994. Even then, he continued to innovate, and developed an image-guided system for clinical use. He continued to help his colleagues in public practice as a visiting consultant to Tan Tock Seng Hospital and to the KK Women’s & Children’s Hospital when the latter was built in 1997. During this time he also studied and obtained a Law degree from the University of London in 1999 as a way to understand the legal issues behind the ethics of medical practice. He had also published more than 50 scientific papers and book chapters.
In 2001, he was asked to run for government as a Member of Parliament, and immediately after his election, was asked to join the governing Cabinet as Minister of State for Health and for the Environment. Being Minister of State was a full-time position, which meant that he had to give up neurosurgical practice. He agreed, with little hesitation as (he said in a later interview) this was his greatest opportunity for public service.
As a member of the Cabinet, he held positions in Transport, Information, Communications and the Arts and in Foreign Affairs. He was the Singapore government’s representative to the World Health Organization (WHO) during the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak in 2003. He was appointed Chairman of the Executive Board of WHO in 2007. He was no stranger to controversy where it mattered to patients, and as Chairman of Singapore’s National AIDS Policy Committee, he promoted acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) education in schools, introduced universal antenatal testing for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), and spoke out against discrimination of patients with positive HIV status. As a Member of Parliament, he was well loved by the members of his constituency.
Dr Balaji was diagnosed with colorectal cancer in 2008. In spite of his illness, he continued his work as a public servant, not stopping just because he was ill, and he never once complained about his illness. He once told me, when as a resident, I had complained about having to come back to the hospital to clip an aneurysm with him on my weekend off: “Bacteria do not take weekends off, so how can we, as doctors, take weekends off?” And that was how he saw work – a responsibility that nature imposed on us because the world doesn’t stop for us. His philosophy in life was very much influenced by the English philosopher, Bertrand Russell: to lead a good life inspired by love and guided by knowledge. Dr Balaji died on 27 September 2010, leaving behind his wife, Swan Hoo, son, Dharma and daughter, Anita. He is missed by all, no less, by the neurosurgical community in Singapore and in Asia–Australasia.