Cancer in politicals personalities (Eva Peron, “Evita”)
Adrian Pablo Hunis*
Assistant Professor of Internal Medicine, University of Buenos Aires, Argentina
Submission: September 17, 2018; Published: October 05, 2018
*Corresponding Address: Adrian Pablo Hunis, Assistant Professor of Internal Medicine University of Buenos Aires, Argentina.
How to cite this article: Adrian P H. Cancer in politicals personalities (Eva Peron, “Evita”). Canc Therapy & Oncol Int J. 2018; 12(2): 555835. DOI: 10.19080/CTOIJ.2018.12.555835
Introduction
Every July 26 is the anniversary of the death of one of the most dear and most times hampered women in Argentina, Eva Peron (“Evita”) (Figure 1).
Evita represented the ideal of women for many and at the same time it was and it is one of the most controversial personalities of world modern history. He was born in a humble village in the province of Buenos Aires, the awnings, from which he left in when he was only 13 years old. The nineteen years after they found trying to be a modest and dark distress actress, theatre and cinema, falling in a military Argentine military much more than her, which admired the right-ratios that were installed in Europe, especially in Italy (Mussolini) and in Germany (Hitler) and that paradojally woke up the sympathy and adhesion of the most humble and poorer classes who lived the Argentine soil. Colonel Peron fell in love with this young women, who was married and later, and in the Argentine constitutional president, prevailing in the first lady, a position he knew what is enough to take and value, until he makes darkness of his husband at times.
The disease in January of the year 1950, following a transverage of appendix (appendectomy), the doctor who intervenes it, Oscar Ivanissevich outstanding surgeon and minister of health of the nation, warns that not only inflamed the appendix but there was a tumour process den the neck of the uterus. Immediately tells Ms. Peron to be operated. This data could never be corroborated and there are author who hold this, while others deny it and affirm that he Evita he learned the truly about his illness. The military assistant of turn was drafted parts that President Peron was; “The lady loses a lot of blood but does not want them to call the doctors. It is included in the bathroom of his office and the cottons is discreetly changed”.
He loses blood jet. Impossible discerning when it comes to the disease and when the menstruation “Cervical squalors cell carcinoma”, finally, in a gynaecological examination, when discovering an extest ulcer on the cervical area of the uterus, a biopsy is confirmed that confirms the diagnosis, Ms. Eva Peron had an epidemoid carcinoma of cervix and the doctors predicted six months of survival.
Cervical Squamous Cell Carcinoma
The hemorrhagic picture was such that, as a palliative did not beat intracavitarian. All the Argentine specialists consulted agreed that a subsequent surgeon of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center of New York, Dr. George Pack (1898-1969), “the Imperialist Surgeon”, Peron, embarked in the electoral campaign to access his second mandate, and with anti AMERICAN speech, and I have not yet allowed the people to know that the people could know to operate to Evita [1], apart the general always called that the “best doctors are there” (In obvius allusion to the Argentine’s physicians) George Pack MD
The Argentine Embassy in Washington had secretly managed the journey of Dr. George Pack to Buenos Aires, who previously and following as a visit to examine her, without it that he knows it, that itself knows (surely anestheticated), to the illustrious patient. The most prestigious School of Surgeons with which Argentina had (and probably South America) was undoubtedly that of the Finochietto brothers, Enrique and Ricardo formed a pleiyade of surgeons [2], created instruments, surgical techniques (which still today are used) and wrote work and books of surgery, within the framework of the Rawson Hospital of the city of Buenos Aires where they were the profession (Figure 2).
The Evita operation always believed that Ricardo Finochietto had operated it, when in reverse in November of 1951 he is Dr. Pack who after waiting for the anesthesia to practice Dr. Roberto Goyenechea slept him, enters the operating room to realize a radical hysterectomy with ganglion emptying. The eminent American oncologist could see that the tumour had already exceeded the limits of the uterus and committed neighbouring organs. Later the patient received external radiotherapy.
Dr. George Pack remained in the country until the sick was recovered from the operation and then left the US. While the Argentine historians, Borroni and Cow hold that Pack charged U$10,000 for his work, Barron Lerner, from the University of Columbia, New York, the United States, says that the US surgeon did not charge for his services. The end beyond all this, the disease turned quickly and a new biopsy confirmed that the cancer was present again. Already in May 1952, and with pulmonary metastases, Pack sent to Buenos Aires the first cytostatic with which it was told for cancer chemotherapy [3], nitrogenous mustard. Probably avoid was the first person in Argentina to receive that medication, which unfortunately did not achieve any therapeutic effect and in a state of neoplastic caquexia, died on July 26, 1952, weighing only 36kg. (79 lbs.)
Politics, Disease and Management of the Information
Cancer is a medical, economic and social medical problem, because it is the second cause of death after cardiovascular diseases and the trend is that in approximately 20 years the first cause of death is Economic, since glid billions are invested in research and losses are millionaires when calculating hours of work lost by this disease and the expenses that treats treats [4]. And finally, it is a social problem, since it cancer can be “a stigma”, disqualifies, creates fear, renxzo, fear of contagion, does not call it by its name and it is usual to hear or read that determined actor, political, musician, etc., suffers “a terrible bad” or that a character said after “a prolonged and sad disease”, that is, when the Cancer does not name it.
How to imagine then that in the 1950s it has been told and accepted that he Evita had cancer? Cancer was what the leprosy had previously been; later tuberculosis and what would later be AIDS, that is to say embarrassing diseases of suffering from them. How a first lady could have cancer and above a cervix, with which it means being sick in an organ that makes the genital sphere and sexuality? As we read previously, there were political reasons (the re-election of General Peron to the Presidency), family reasons (Eva’s family refused to tell the truth) and personal reasons (the Argentine historian, Fermin Chavez says he avoids saying: “I’m not sick, I will not operate it ...”). “You can try to treat a politician like any other patient, but the implications of your decisions can be very significant. Doctors should not forget to treat the first and main public figures as patients” [5].
Conclusion
The case of Eva Peron serves to see that relevant figures of political activity, not only can they get sick, but that the entire environment may try to hide the truth, without evaluating the damage that produces violates the rights of patients namely the truth about their illness and on their evolution. Each of us owns his own destiny and his own life and is not a duty but a law knows the evil that afflicts us to be able to project our existence beyond times. Despite these considerations, the medical care of great grade will generate important ethical conflicts than only reason and experience and professional honesty will be resolved.
References
- Clarin (Digital version) (2000) She did not want an American.
- Clarin (Digital version) (2000) Avoid and the ghost surgeon.
- Adrian Pablo (1999) Brief history of cancer chemotherapy.
- Lerner BH (2000) The illness and Death of Eva Peron: Cancer, Politics, and Secrecy. Lancet 355(9219): 1988-1991.
- Tomas Eloy Martinez (1995) Santa Evita. In: Michiko Kakutani (Eds), Santa Evita (7th edn), Editorial Planeta, Spain, pp. 398.