René G. Favaloro

Rene Favaloro, A hero to remember (www.federal.org.ar/hoja/images/DrFavaloro03.jpg)

René Geronimo Favaloro was a very famous doctor who created the “Fundación Favaloro”. He was born the July 12th of 1923 in La Plata, Argentina, in a poor family. When he was 4 years old he already wanted to be a doctor, perhaps, because his uncle was. He did the medicals studies in the “Universidad de La Plata”.

Favaloro never liked the way health was managed in his country and he criticized the way medical costs were managed and he learned to respect and talk with his patients, most of them poor ones, while he was working in the “Hospital Policlinico”. He once said that all doctors in Latin America should work in the places among poverty. Then, he traveled to EE UU to become a successful resident heart surgeon.

He came back to Argentina in 1971 and he established the “Fundación Favaloro”, where he taught what he had learned in the USA and his own ideas to other doctors. Also, he created more laboratories for research. He managed to get the money but it wasn’t enough.

He had a lot of economical and personal troubles. He could not get enough money to keep investigating and doing surgeries. He made really hard criticisms like this one: "…we are without doubt submerged in a materialistic, hypocritical and dehumanized society that has been developing slowly but steadily and which appears to have no limits to its appetites. All means are justified to increase power and pleasure through economic gains. It is of no importance that the greatest part of the population is excluded and survives in misery and lack of welfare." He was really depressed by that and he killed himself.

Nowadays, Rene Favaloro is commemorated for being a great heart surgeon who cared about the poor people and who helped the country with his investigations and by teaching other doctors what he knew. That’s why he is respected and he will not be forgotten. In my opinion, his work must be always remembered because it is still helping a lot of people, even our own relatives. Favaloro's story and effort mustn’t be forgotten and must stimulate other young people to follow his work.