| Dr Pramod Karan Sethi |
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| Dr P K Sethi |
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| Jaipur feet |
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However, as a result of the strained relations between the different factions, the Jaipur foot lost out. Serious research and development ceased and the production process and quality were not addressed. There was no standardisation in the training of people who made the feet. The claim that only local materials are used cannot be upheld as freshly compounded rubber for the outer layer only has a 3-6 month shelf life after which, the compound ‘self cures’ and loses its properties. Skin tone for the foot is an important aesthetic requirement especially for ‘barefoot’ walking, but this cannot be guaranteed because the production of small batches of compounds with different colour tones is not commercially viable and rubber technologists were not interested in doing it.
In the late 1980’s the Department of Science and Technology of India made a grant to Dr Sethi’s centre to look at improving the Foot and automating its production, but it is unclear whether this study was completed as its findings are not available. The quality of Jaipur feet produced by various small workshops set up by people who had learnt Jaipur Foot fabrication at the SMS rehabilitation centre cannot be assured. The biomechanics of the Jaipur Foot have been neither explained nor elaborated scientifically and the Foot itself was never patented.
Despite being recently tested in an ISPO study of different prosthetic feet and their performance in particular conditions the Jaipur Foot has yet to be accepted by medical and rehabilitation professionals, especially in India where it is much needed. It does not feature in the syllabus of any degree or diploma level prosthetics courses offered by India’s National Training Institutes.
Prosthetists and commercial prosthetics manufacturers may not be keen on competition from a good low cost device and also do not understand the realities of providing rehabilitation services in poor and developing countries. Some will agree that the Jaipur Foot is one of the best for use in developing countries, giving thousands of poor (and some rich) people a quality of life that was unimaginable when they first lost their limbs. However, it remains that the technology (both the foot itself and the leg fitting) needs to be tested and improved, a process that every technology must be open to – and one which would be the best tribute to Dr Sethi and Masterji’s ground-breaking innovation.
On retiring from government service Dr Sethi continued to work as an orthopaedic surgeon at the Santokba Durlabji Memorial Hospital in Jaipur. Well into his 70’s he also saw patients at his clinic and supervised SDMH’s Rehabilitation Aids and Limb Fitting Centre.
Dr Sethi sought to understand the reasons behind his patients’ rejection of their imported prostheses, and through this process he identified a hugely important issue - the prostheses’ incompatibility with the everyday life of the users. The issues still remain. Unfortunately, both the vast majority of providers of prostheses and the general public remain unaware of the complexity of prosthetics and their provision. Until the users’ voices are truly heard the providing of inappropriate prostheses will continue and users will continue to abandoned/reject these prostheses. Unlike so many in the field of prosthetics Dr Sethi listened to the users. For this he truly deserves to be remembered and honoured. <<back |
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