WICHITA, Kans. (Diya TV) — As colleagues and patients learn of the murder of Indian-American Dr. Achutha Reddy, mourning is overflowing a Kansas community.
According to local media reports, the 57-year-old Reddy was a well respected psychiatrist. “He had a real passion for helping people with mental illness,” said Episcopal Social Services Executive Director Barbara Andres. Andres worked alongside Reddy for several years.
Reddy, an American Board Certified Psychiatrist for more than 20 years was a doctor for many members of the Breakthrough Club – a social and vocational program for persons with mental illness. Reddy practiced in Wichita for more than two decades, opening his own practice in 2003.
“The Medical Society is heartbroken over the loss of Dr. Reddy,” Denis Knight, president of the Medical Society of Sedgwick County said in a statement.
Patients have shared memories as well, including 37-year-old Maria Williams, a patient of Dr. Reddy’s for eight years. “We would talk about our relationship, our children, how I could deal with the PTSD of my first husband dying,” Williams said. Williams began seeing Reddy after experiencing flashbacks, stating Reddy helped her open up about the incident. “Happy, I was happy because I had some issues I was dealing with and I needed to take care of them,” Williams said.
Andres says Reddy’s services will be greatly missed.
“He had a good size clinic so those patients are going to have to be shifted into other practices and that’s going to take some time and people are going to be nervous and they’re grieving the loss of their doctor,” Andres said. “My guess is some people will fall through the cracks and that’s our biggest concern. That’s why we are really working together.”
Andres says mental health workers – case managers, employment people, support people, “have a lot of work to do along with the psychiatry to work together to get people served … Now it’s filling the gap and helping people grieve and helping people go forward and remembering the good words that Dr. Reddy gave them and remembering they need to focus on wellness and they need to focus on their mental health.”
Reddy was a psychiatrist at Holistic Psychiatric Services in Wichita. According to the clinic’s website, Holistic Psychiatric Services’ mission is to “provide patients with quality holistic mental health care with competence, compassion and integrity.”
A 21-year-old client of Reddy, Umar Rashid Dutt of Wichita, is accused of stabbing Reddy multiple times in the alley behind Reddy’s office, according to the Wichita Police Department. Dutt’s bond was set to $1 million.
Reddy graduated from medical school in Osmania, India in 1986. He interned at St. Louis University and completed his residency at the Kansas University School of Medicine-Wichita before making it his permanent home.
Information from The Wichita Eagle contributed to this article.
Robert Haugh, a Bay Area based journalist who has been covering news, elections, arts & entertainment, professional sports, community events and crime for 18 years.