Pramod Karan Sethi

Jan 10 2008 by David Charters, Liverpool Daily Post

TO THE amputees of the slums and the victims of landmines, he was a saint on Earth, who had developed an artificial foot for the poor.

Countless people, who might otherwise have hoped their stumps would attract pity as well as coins to their begging bowls, were able to lead active lives.

In the West, doctors, technicians and researchers assumed that below-the-knee prosthetics would be worn with shoes and socks.

But that wouldn’t work in hot countries, where many people walked barefoot.

So, with the help of Ramahandra Sharma, a skilled but illiterate craftsman, he started work on a foot that could be afforded by the poor.

This was entirely in keeping with the wider philosophy of Pramod Karan Sethi, who, though in tune with medical advances, believed the true strength of his profession lay in healing.

Sometimes, scientific ad- vances overlooked the needs of people on the streets.

However, some felt that the part played by Sharma in developing the foot had been overshadowed by Sethi because of his higher status as a doctor.

It was named the Jaipur Foot, after the city Rajasthyani, where both men worked in the hospital.

The foot was made from vulcanised rubber with a sponge filling, and stiffer rubber was used for the metatarsals and micro-cellular rubber for the heel.

Behind their thinking was the need for patients to be able to eat cross-legged on the floor, pray, climb trees and pedal cycles.

Sethi presented the finished product to orthopaedic surgeons in Oxford. It was comparatively inexpensive to manufacture and has been much in demand in countries in Africa, as well as India, Pakistan, Cambodia and Iraq, where mines have been laid and disease is rife.

The rift between Sharma, who had also helped lepers make handicrafts, and Sethi led to the former being involved in free distribution of the foot in some areas.

But without Sethi’s medical knowledge, it would not have offered new opportunities to millions of people. Pratibha Patil, India’s president, paid tribute to him on his death.

Sethi was born in Benares (Varanasi) on the banks of the Ganges, the son of a professor of physics.

He graduated in medicine at Benares Hindu University, later becoming a lecturer in surgery at Sawai Man Singh Medical College and Hospital, Jaipur. He was married with four children.

Pramod Karan Sethi, doctor; born November 28, 1927,died January 6, 2008.