Sunkara Venkata Adinarayana Rao

Sunkara Venkata Adinarayana Rao was an orthopaedic surgeon known for his free work for poor patients, especially people disabled by polio. He was managing trustee of the Free Polio Surgical and Research Foundation in Visakhapatnam and founder of the PREMA rehabilitation hospitals. He was named for the Padma Shri in 2022 in the field of medicine, from Andhra Pradesh ^[1].

Moved by the poor

Rao was born on 30 June 1939 into a farming family in Bhimavaram, West Godavari district ^[2]. He took his MBBS at Andhra Medical College, Visakhapatnam, in 1966 and his MS in orthopaedics there in 1970 ^[2]. Seeing poor patients lying on hospital floors waiting for treatment, he resolved that they too should get proper care ^[2].

Free surgery for polio

He developed new methods of correcting limb deformities caused by polio, and devoted himself to free corrective surgery and rehabilitation for people with polio and cerebral palsy ^[2]. According to his citation, he examined more than 20 lakh patients and operated on more than three lakh, performing more than ten lakh surgical procedures ^[2]. He held more than 989 free polio surgery camps across India and in Nepal, and on one day at Mandvi in Kutch operated on 411 patients ^[2].

He edited a textbook of orthopaedics and received a national award for the welfare of people with disabilities ^[2]. He was known as Vikalang Bandhu, friend of the disabled ^[2].

Rao died at his home in Visakhapatnam on 17 January 2026 ^[3].