Team Herald
PANJIM: Goa’s first neuropsychiatrist Dr Maria Adélia Peres e Costa, better known as Adélia Costa, passed away on December 10, in the midst of close family in Miramar. She was 91.
After her initial studies in Goa, Dr Adelia graduated in neurology and psychiatry in Lisbon, becoming the first lady to neuropsychiatrist in Portugal and her colonies. On her return to Goa she was appointed the first director of the newly established Abade Faria Mental Hospital, now called Institute of Psychiatry and Human Behaviour.
With full support from the then Portuguese government she modernised the hospital to the extent possible. She quit as director in March 1962 and after another stint in Portugal set up private practice in Panjim.
Dr Adélia worked selflessly, for over half a century, until her retirement in 2009. She was empathetic to the needs of her patients and kept abreast of the latest developments in medicine. She soon became a role model for younger generations of medical professionals and an angel of mental health to patients from Goa and neighbouring states.
The funeral cortege will leave her ancestral house at 3.30 p.m. today, for Mass at Saviour of the World Church, Loutulim, followed by burial.
