OBITUARY – Dr. Gur Singh
Gur Singh, a noted B.C. neurosurgeon, is being remembered as an icon. Singh, a pioneer Indo-Canadian doctor in the interior BC, created the Kamloops Brain Injury Association, helping 1,200 patients each year. B.C. Health Minister and Kamloops-North Thompson MLA Terry Lake calls Singh an icon who will be sorely missed.
KAMLOOPS – Dr. Gur Singh, long-time neurosurgeon and community leader in Kamloops, including an Indo-Canadian pioneer in interior B.C., has died at the age of 78, one year after being diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s disease.
One of his patients James Passmore told CBC News about how Singh changed his life.
When James Passmore first arrived at the Kamloops Brain Injury Association in 1988, after suffering a brain injury, he quickly gave it up as a bad job, reported CBC News.
“I actually thought I would get stupider if I hung out with other brain-injured people, and so I quit going,” he told CBC’s Daybreak Kamloops.
But Passmore returned some years later, and rather than feeling stupid, he was made to feel worthy by the centre’s creator, Dr. Gur Singh.
Singh was one of Kamloop’s first neurosurgeons.
After he retired, he remained a huge supporter of the Kamloops Brain Injury Association, helping them raise $1 million over the past 11 years via an annual golf tournament that bears his name.
Passmore says the Kamloops Brain Injury Association helped him regain a sense of safety and belonging, and gave him a chance to learn things like basic math and art again. Singh’s encouragement was also paramount.
“When Dr. Singh says, ‘James, I’m going to put you in charge of that,’ that made me feel I’m worth something,” Passmore said.
“It’s not a matter of what we do, but what we feel inside, and Dr. Singh represented that. You could talk to him and he’d understand and then he would make you feel worthy.”
B.C. Health Minister and Kamloops-North Thompson MLA Terry Lake calls Singh an icon who will be sorely missed.
“Gur has been a mentor, a friend, a colleague to me for many years,” he said.
“He’s someone that I can only hope to emulate in terms of his service to not only his profession, but his community.”
Gur Singh has passed away, but his legacy in Kamloops lives on
Without Gur Singh’s work, the reality for brain injury patients would be bleak, says the association director.
Courtesy CBC News
