Sethi, P(ramod) K(aran)

▪ 2009

      Indian orthopedic surgeon

born Nov. 28, 1927, Benares, British India [now Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India]

died Jan. 6, 2008, Jaipur, Rajasthan, India

coinvented, with artisan Ramchandra Sharma, a prosthetic foot that could be made cheaply, looked like a bare foot, and had sufficient flexibility and durability to allow users to walk on uneven terrain, climb trees, and sit cross-legged on the ground. These qualities made the Jaipur foot, as it came to be called, suitable for use by peasants in less-developed countries, and by 2008 it was being used in more than 25 countries, often to assist victims of land mines. Sethi was a lecturer in surgery at the Sawai Man Singh Hospital in Jaipur when in 1958 he was asked to form and head an orthopedic department, although he lacked orthopedic training. In this work he found that Western-made prostheses for missing feet and legs were unsuited to the needs of the rural poor. After he and Sharma spent several years developing the Jaipur foot, Sethi presented a paper on it at the surgeons association conference in Bangalore in 1970 and to British orthopedic surgeons in 1971.

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