Tuscaloosa was shocked and saddened to learn of the death of Dr. Ramesh Peramsetty, a well-known physician, at the age of 63 on Friday evening. No cause of death was given.

Employees of Crimson Care, a practice he founded more than 25 years ago, shared on social media around 8 p.m. Friday evening:

More: One and a hundred: Ramesh Peramsetty, physician

“As many of you are aware at this time, we have been notified of the passing of Dr. Ramesh Peramsetty. The Peramsetty family asks that we please grant them privacy as they grieve his passing. They have received outpourings of love and faith. We will continue to honor him as he would have us honor him. Thank you for your understanding during this time.”

His work, particularly battling the COVID-19 pandemic at the local level, has earned him media attention, including as part of One and 100, a series of stories about the pandemic published in The Tuscaloosa News.

Contributor Jason Morton wrote:

“For Peramsetty, the first son of his family in Andhra Pradesh, India, the global spread of the novel coronavirus was a call to action. It was this sense of duty he used to explain to his mother, now 83, when she asked in the early days of COVID-19 whether he should close the clinics he opened in 2001 and limit his exposure to this mysterious new threat.

“I looked at her, smiled and said, ‘Mom, you made me a soldier, remember?’” Peramsetty, then 60, said of the video call to his family abroad. “You made me a doctor.”

His clinics were among the first local non-hospital sites to offer COVID-19 testing, vaccines, and monoclonal antibody administration to those suffering. He spoke out frequently to combat waves of resistance to science and widespread attempts at unscientific misinformation.

What Peramsetty calls his Crimson Care Network of providers includes the Crimson Care, First Care, FirstKids Urgent Care and Allegra Family Clinic clinics. Earlier this month, he introduced his physician son, Dr. Sasank Peramsetty, to the Crimson Care network via social media.

In April, the city of Tuscaloosa renamed a section of 18th Avenue East, from Veterans Memorial Parkway to 13th Avenue East, to Peramsetty Avenue. This was an area where he and his clinics had a strong presence.

In 2023, Tuscaloosa Mayor Walt Maddox and City Council President Kip Tyner proclaimed March 28 as Ramesh Peramsetty Day, in honor of his 25 years of practicing public servants in the Druid City and for his leadership and guidance during the worst of the pandemic.

“This has been a long time coming,” Tyner said in March 2023, “and what I know about my great friend is that we could fill pages and pages and pages with his contributions — not only to the medical field and as the COVID doctor, the one everyone turned to in that time of crisis for our city and our country — but he is also one of the most giving people I have ever known.”

“We all remember his dedication and the way he shared information during COVID and that helped many of us, myself included, understand what we were dealing with, in completely new territory, and I will always value his wise counsel,” Maddox said in March 2023. “Anytime we needed advice or assistance, especially in our public safety sector, Dr. P and his entire team were there for the city.”

On Friday evening, Dr. Keisha Lowther, Chief Medical Officer at Whatley Health Services Alabama, posted the following on Facebook: “The Tuscaloosa community has truly lost a giant. Jamie and I join the Tuscaloosa physician community as we mourn the loss of one of our own. (Dr. Permasetty) was an advocate for his patients and was always so kind.”

A former employee, Julie-Ann Burch, shared, “…to say I loved and adored you would be the understatement of my life. You gave me a home and a family when I desperately needed both. When you nagged us, it was just like a good parent would nag a child. You answered all my questions and boy did I have a lot! You gave me so much guidance, opportunity and freedom. Godspeed, my favorite patriarch! I will love and admire you forever!”

Reach Mark Hughes Cobb on [email protected].

This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Dr. Ramesh Peramsetty, Noted Tuscaloosa Physician, Dies at 63