Harry Singh, a doctor who cared for all

If you have lived in Piarco, Caroni, and environs, you or your grandparents, may have been a patient of Dr Harry Singh.

Dr Singh, who died of oesophageal cancer on June 12, was known for his kindness, generosity, and his desire to improve people’s quality of life.

Speaking to Sunday Newsday, his son, Harry Singh Jr said, “He had such a huge presence even though he was super quiet. I think it was the combination of being a doctor and his businesses that he was able to read people very well and blend with different types of company.”

In addition to his private practice in Kelly Village, Dr Singh was county medical officer of health for both Caroni and St George East, primary care manager for the North West Regional Health Authority, as well as acting chief medical officer.

In 1995 he co-founded a pharmaceutical distribution company importing generic brand medication with the aim of helping the less fortunate get medication at an affordable price. Then, in 2003 he brought a fast food franchise to TT.

“Even after all these things he considered himself to be a doctor first. The reason is because he came from a very poor background. When they sent him to look after the cows he would dream about being a doctor. So, his parents and siblings betted on him to go to medical school. In fact, his brother started medical school and then dropped out so my father could attend because they only had finances for one person.”

Born on April 25, 1954, Dr Singh studied at University of the West Indies, Mona Campus and completed his Masters in the US. The people in his home village in Las Lomas #2 were proud that a doctor came from their community even as he started his practice in 1992 in Kelly Village.

“His whole belief was that, if you want to find yourself, you have to lose yourself in the service of others. So, he would come back home with bananas, cassava, or roti and tomato choka. Because the patients couldn’t pay him, they brought him food.”

Singh Jr said his father’s job was caring for people and their conditions. He saw his work as a duty rather than a job, working from Sunday to Sunday. He performed about 10,000 diabetic tests per year free of charge, and was interested in his patients’ daily lives and emotional needs, spending an average of an hour with each patient.

He recalled going to his father’s office for a booster shot when he was 12, after which he was put to lie down in an adjoining room.

“He was asking, ‘How your grandmother going? What she doing?’ Then he’ll ask, ‘What you eat this morning? I hope you getting your roti.’ I used to be so vex! I went and told mummy, ‘You know why daddy coming home so late? Because daddy doing nothing in work.”

He said even as his father was dying, he asked Singh Jr what would happen to his practice and patients.

In the weeks before he was tested, Dr Singh said he felt tired and initially thought he had a chest infection. However, on May 13, he was diagnosed with stage four cancer with a zero per cent survival rate.

“I asked him what was the most difficult thing about having cancer and he said it was the inability to dream. As a child his whole thing was coming out of poverty and looking towards the future. When you have terminal cancer, the future doesn’t exist for you because the road is coming to an end. He said when you lose that tool, you lose an important part of your personality.”

On May 22, he and his wife went to the Johns Hopkins Hospital in the United States where there was a research programme for oesophageal cancer. The family hoped something could be done for their patriarch but, after arriving in Maryland, his medical condition declined rapidly. They were told nothing could be done to save his life and suggested he return home.

They took several covid19 PCR tests which came back negative. That allowed them to get an air ambulance to Medical Associates Hospital in St Augustine. There, they had to be quarantined for seven days before going home to quarantine for seven more days, even though they both took about three more PCR tests which all came back negative.

He never made it home. Instead, Dr Singh died at the age of 67, 20 minutes before he was set to be released from the facility. He left behind a sad and disappointed family including a wife, two sons, a daughter, and two grandchildren.

MP for Couva South, Rudranath Indarsingh, said Dr Singh was best known as a “humanitarian, philanthropist, and guardian of families of across Caroni.”

He told Sunday Newsday Dr Singh was the type of person that could hardly be found anymore, a genuine human being who understood the reality of the community he existed in as a doctor.

People from all over central Trinidad and beyond would travel to see him and were willing to wait for hours to do so if necessary. And, even before he examined people, as soon as they were in his presence, they felt better.

“There was this connection he had with all age groups, but especially the elderly. He was a very calm, resolute person who was never in a rush to get you out of his office.”

Indarsingh said his parents were patients of Dr Singh, and they would take him and his sisters there for medical attention. Later, when Indarsingh got married and had children, his family became patients. They developed a friendship and Dr Singh would often visit his home and speak on a variety of topics.

“Our relationship went beyond doctor and patient. Dr Harry Singh was family to us and to many others. When you went to him, he was not a doctor alone. He listened to you. If there were problems or challenges, beside medical advice and admonitions, if he could have intervened, he tried. He became a counsellor, father figure, mentor, you name it, for people at large.”

He said Dr Singh never forgot his upbringing and so, many times, when people had financial challenges, Singh would treat them without charge. Not only did he see people for free, he gave those in need free medication, and even conducted home visits after a long day at the office.

“There were many times persons came to me and said, ‘Mr Indarsingh, things tight.’ Harry Singh would say, ‘Send them. It’s not about the money.’ He did it for anybody. He did not say you were middle class, upper class, you were a CEPEP worker, gas station attendant – there was no distinction for a man like him.”

He would also donate foodstuff, book supplies, and assist families in any way he could. None of his was publicised because, for Dr Singh, it was not for show or public relations, but about humanity.

Dr Singh’s funeral took place on June 25 at Belgroves Memorial Centre in Trincity before he was cremated at the Belgroves crematorium.