Senior psychiatrist K. Sudhakar Shetty passes away at 93

K. Sudhakar Shetty, a doctor who laid the foundation for the Department of Psychiatry at Father Muller’s Hospital in Mangaluru and who served in the hospital for 52 years, passed away due to age related illness here on Saturday.

He was 93 and is survived by his children Rajesh Shetty, neurologist and director, first neuro hospital, Mangaluru and Rakesh Shetty.

Born on April 16, 1933, Dr. Shetty as MD psychiatrist from the inaugural batch at AIIMS, Delhi, stood at the very forefront of mental health care in the country at a time when the field was still widely misunderstood and overlooked. He laid the foundation for the Department of Psychiatry at Father Muller’s Hospital in 1965.

Over five decades, he touched the lives of lakhs of patients and families across the region.