[1] During his postgraduate specialist training in anaesthesia in the United Kingdom (1961–64), Sachithanandan trained with post-war British anaesthesiologists that included John Alfred Lee (Southend-on-Sea Hospital), John Francis Nunn (Royal College of Surgeons of England research unit) and Professor Thomas Cecil Gray (Liverpool).
In 1964, Sachithanandan and JF Nunn et al. were the first investigators to demonstrate age-dependent airway closure in humans whilst breathing at residual volume.
Their research findings still remains a highly cited British Journal of Anaesthesia publication with important implications for mechanical ventilatory support of the critically ill patient to correct the resulting hypoxaemia and atelectasis from the reduced lung volumes.
As the Vice Dean of the inaugural Faculty board (1975–77) and subsequently as Dean of the Faculty of Anaesthesiologists, College of Surgeons of Malaysia (1977–79), he was highly influential in developing local specialist training and accreditation criteria which helped lay the foundation for a future local Masters certification in anaesthesia.
From the humble origins of this first hospital, KPJ has emerged to become Malaysia’s leading premier private healthcare provider with an annual turnover in excess of a billion ringgit from a network of 21 private hospitals employing over 800 medical specialists and is listed on the main board of the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange.
He died unexpectedly on 28 May 1981, aged forty-nine following a coronary artery bypass operation at London’s Harley Street Clinic.
He was an exceptionally competent anaesthesiologist who actively trained and inspired innumerous young specialists and was responsible for much of the early development of clinical anaesthesia and intensive care services nationally and particularly in the two large Malaysian states of Johor and Perak.His leadership in elevating the role and status of the anaesthesiologist in the care of the patients in the early days of anaesthesiology as an evolving discipline was a very significant contribution indeed.