Suspended AP doc dies of cardiac arrest

Visakhapatnam: Senior anaesthesiologist Dr K Sudhakar, who was suspended last year for voicing his concern over alleged shortage of PPE kits at Narsipatnam area hospital in Visakhapatnam district, passed away on Friday following a cardiac arrest.
The news of his death, however, broke only late on Friday night as his family did not want to make it public.Only a few close relatives and friends of Dr Sudhakar were informed. He was 55 and is survived by his wife and two sons.
Incidentally, Dr Sudhakar was the first government doctor who went public in expressing his concern over lack of PPE kits and medical infrastructure to fight the pandemic virus during the first wave last year. He was suspended on disciplinary grounds on April 8, 2020 when the nation was under lockdown.
Dr Sudhakar was manhandled by police on NH-16 at Akkayyapalem area of the city on May 16, and after the video of his manhandling and subsequent arrest went viral on social media, the AP high court ordered an investigation by the CBI into the issue. Later, he was admitted to a mental health hospital.
The doctor, who had recovered from Covid-19 recently, was staying at his Balayya Sastry layout residence in Seethammadhara area of the city. According to his family members, the high court was scheduled to pronounce the judgment in his case on April 27. When it did not happen, he went into a state of depression and mostly remained to himself for the past few weeks, sources said.
“The court was to pronounce its final judgement on April 27. But we don’t know what happened. When there was no news about the case, the doctor slipped into a state of depression,” one of his family friends, P Vijayakumar, told TOI. Dr Sudhakar had also attended a departmental inquiry at Narsipatnam town a few days ago and was expecting his reinstatement soon.