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Condolences continue to pour in for Dr.P. K. Sethi

Dr. P. K. Sethi

JAIPUR: The Pink City continues to mourn for one of its illustrious sons, Pramod Karan Sethi, who worked magic with broken bones and made people walk once again after near fatal accidents.

Dr. Sethi, who was recipient of the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership in 1981, passed away this past Saturday at the age of 80.

Among those who called on his family members and relatives to share the grief at the Vivekanand Marg residence of the Sethis in the C-Scheme area of Jaipur in the past couple of days were former Vice-President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat and Magsaysay Award winner Aruna Roy besides hundreds of his students and patients. In fact, Mr. Shekhawat himself was his patient and trusted his immense capacity to “heal”.

“I had this multiple injury on my foot over three decades back. But for Dr. Sethi I would not have walked thereafter,” said Mr. Shekhawat who spent considerable time with the family after coming down from Delhi on Tuesday.

“A lot of people owe their lives to him,” said Shree Gopal Kabra, a student of Dr. Sethi at the Sawai Man Singh Medical College here and later his colleague.

At the time of his demise Dr. Sethi was heading the orthopaedics department of the Santokbha Durlabhji Memorial Hospital and was in charge of its rehabilitation and limb-fitting centre.

The Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation in a condolence message expressed “deep sympathies” with the bereaved family and the relatives of Dr. Sethi, who it said enabled the crippled and the limbless to resume near normal lives.

“Rajasthan and India have lost an eminent citizen, a committed scientist and a great human being. For those of us who knew him through decades, his absence will be felt in our minds at many times, with appreciation for what he taught us so casually, and the vacuum that now needs to be filled,” said Ms. Roy in a statement.

Though Dr. Sethi is more known to the outside world for his association with the much talked about Jaipur Foot which he developed along with master artisan Ramchandra Sharma back in 1968, the medical profession hails him as the founding father of orthopaedics in Rajasthan and one of the pioneers of this specialty in the country.

“Talking about Jaipur Foot is only part of Dr. Sethi’s personality. He was a great teacher and academician,” said Chandrashekhar Baid, Congress MLA and student of the distinguished doctor.

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