[NYTr] Fidel's Tribute to Chilean Doctor Elena Pedraza

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

Prensa Latina, Havana - Jan 8, 2008
http://www.plenglish.com


Reflections by the Commander in Chief 

AN EXAMPLE OF GOOD COMMUNIST BEHAVIOUR 

by Fidel Castro Ruz

I am referring to a Chilean woman, Elena Pedraza, a highly educated
specialist in rehabilitation. More than 40 years ago she paid her first
visit to Cuba. Allende, a medical doctor, was not yet the president of
Chile. The Cuban Revolution was almost 8 years old and it was already
training teachers, doctors, physical therapists and health specialists,
full speed ahead.

I am writing this reflection partly as a summary of six pages printed
in small letters that have landed in my hands. It is a bit longer than
usual, but done with the thought that later the full version of the
speech given by the Chilean specialist on the morning of March 15, 2002
at the Second International Congress of the Cuban Society for Physical
Medicine and Rehabilitation taking place in the capital of Cuba will be
published by the press somewhere or in some magazine. Let us listen to
her explain in her own words: 

"I arrived in 1966 and Cuba was beginning an historic phase. Its
beginnings were punctuated with great difficulties and shortages; they
had to solve urgent problems, among which those dealing with health
were considered to be a top priority... Personnel trained in this
specialty were needed and so their education had to be addressed and
time was of the essence; but it had to be done, despite all the
limitations existing in the country...."

"Nevertheless, society acquires more and more awareness about the
marginal world in which the disabled live. In Cuba, for example, there
was only a small number of empirical therapists, some of whom had been
trained in the United States during summer courses, and others had left
the country.

"The Health Minister at that time, Dr. Machado Ventura, told me upon
meeting me: 'we must train physical therapists for the entire country,
and we have to do it soon.' I answered in the affirmative and I asked
him what such a mission would entail; he answered: 'we need books.'
Without hesitating he emphasized: 'We need books".' I never forgot that
suggestion, for me it became a commitment that I have always tried to
honour.

"My training in kinesiology began in 1930... My work experiences during
30 years in my country, Chile, were difficult...  I completed by
working years in Chile, but I had no hesitations about returning to
take up this commitment in Cuba, in 1966.

"My first contacts took place in the Frank País Hospital. This centre
was very well equipped for treating both child and adult patients in
the specialty of traumatology and orthopaedics. It was explained to me
that previously this centre had offered very selective care and a very
tiny portion of the neediest population was able to have access to
these services.

"As I was learning about the medium in which I was to be working, I
could see the need for a very great undertaking that would also take a
long time. At that time I was already able to see the State's concern
in taking on the population's right to health throughout the entire
country and in rehabilitation.

"We had to begin. I visited much of the country, getting to know some
of its parts: I was in Santiago de Cuba, a very beautiful colonial
city. There I made my first attempt to carry out an elementary training
course, in a small centre for the treatment of patients suffering from
various neuromotor disorders. It was headed by Dr. González Corona...
This doctor fabricated his own elements to treat his patients. He was
telling me how he himself had built the devices from scrap aluminium
sheeting so that children suffering from polio could walk; he also made
parallel bars and built a rustic swimming pool for water exercises.

"In 1966, I officially begin to teach another more scheduled course on
Kinesiology for the physiotherapy students at the Frank País
Hospital... At that opportunity I understood how relevant it was to
bring the most important books in order to teach correctly. There were
no study materials, we had to do it all with whatever means we had. But
the students' interest to learn was so intense, as was mine to teach,
having no references and outside of my specialty, but rather involving
my experiences acquired in my country and a sense of responsibility
that I think I have had all my life in my work in hospital clinics.

"This was the beginning that became my model for future courses that
were to be given and with the experience accumulated we adjusted each
year's programmes with great dedication. At the end of these, which
ended up being three years, experience allowed us to go on to prepare
comprehensive teaching material; in other words, the fundamental basics
of a programme of this type for regular courses.

"In my stay at this hospital I was able to accumulate a lot of
experience that would be very valuable to me during the years I was
developing my work in Cuba.

The path towards the development of what today is rehabilitation in
Cuba was born in these episodes that I am telling you about, what this
specialty was and how it grew year after year, throughout the entire
island, until what we can appreciate today at this Congress.

"I made informational visits to hospitals and polyclinics located in
peripheral areas, in all areas of the country, even in the most
isolated of places. In some of them I discovered the existence of small
modest physiotherapy departments which were being organized. Others
which had already been installed were offering services to the people,
but to a large extent lacking trained staff able to provide care in
this specialty... It was interesting to see everyone's efforts to
solve, step by step, this journey that we were all involved in. This
experience was very important for me; I could see how from the
Ministries of Health and Education, suitable departments were being
created to offer more thorough training to future students; for
example, raising the levels of instruction for enrollment in kinesiology
courses, and also integrating courses in programmes related to the
specialty.

"In 1979 I gave my first lectures as a professor of kinesiology in the
teaching programmes for residents in the specialty of physical medicine
and rehabilitation. I taught them to always be in control of
evaluation, avoid being imprecise and making unfavourable comments in
order to correctly carry out their plan of action. I was able to
recognize that this must always be an ethical norm, and thus would
prevent the patient from feeling diminished at the beginning of a
treatment.

"My years spent at Julio Díaz were very enriching and they allowed me
to get to know all the situations experienced by a disabled person; the
centre had hospital facilities, out-patient care and looked after a
large population. As I am writing my memories, I return to that distant
time. I must say that I was able to get to know a generous people who
had a lot of solidarity. The hospital continued being better equipped
with new elements that would offer more complete patient care; every
year new [disabilities] were being treated, and the building as well
continued to grow until it reached the size it is today, that of a small
fortress...  I came to realize that a therapist does not forget the
theoretical basis and the practices he was taught, nor can he forget to
keep on studying, and at the same time updating.

"I came to regard this centre with the affection one has for one's
home. I cannot help but remember so many things that I experienced,
with so many colleagues, therapists, doctors, auxiliary staff, everyone
always respecting me with great warmth... I must also recall
spending time in other hospitals where I taught, held conferences and
training sessions, such as in the Hermanos Ameijeiras Hospital, and
others. In the 1970's, with the goal of contributing to the development
of medicine in Cuba, we Chileans who were living in exile (even though
I never felt like an exile in Cuba) decided to pitch in to acquire 23
volumes of books dealing with the specialty of kinesiology therapy.
This happened as a response to the scant possibility of receiving
foreign texts, which were so necessary to improve teaching and the
training of professionals... 

"This Congress affords us a very complete view of what rehabilitation
is doing throughout the country. This reflects the concern of the
government and of the medical corps, and also the desire for
professional developmen by staff making up the rehabilitation teams who
work in this specialty...

"The motto of this Congress -- Disability, Rehabilitation, Humanity --
commits us to evaluate much more all that we are offering to the
disabled. We make an effort to offer rehabilitation, but when this
motto extends to the word 'Humanity,' I realize that it is not just
one simple word more; rather it is a very deep plea: humanity and
dignity for human beings. 

"In this international Congress, the great volume of work being done by
Cuban doctors and the other members of rehabilitation teams is
recognized; their experiences are demonstrated in all areas of the
medical specialties and this reveals the constant dedication and sense
of responsibility in the national and foreign papers presented at the
Congress... 

"I should like to send an affectionate and friendly greeting to the
young people who were my students, who are now professionals
overflowing with experience and prestige; with them I took part in such
gratifying tasks as voluntary work, which in Cuba has always been a
complement to the work of each citizen...."  (Havana, March, 2002.)

                         ***

When the fascist coup took place in Chile, funded by the government
of the United States, and thousands of citizens are imprisoned,
tortured, vanished or murdered, within or outside the borders of their
country, Elena Pedraza moved to Cuba, and from here she moved to
different countries, gathering world support for women. She continued
to develop her research in our country as well as her training
programme. Later, she returned to her native land, and from there she
continues to collaborate with Cuba.

A few days ago I was able to leaf through an excellent book whose
author, Dr. Debra Rose, is a citizen of the United States -- where
rehabilitation is a very costly and elitist service, inaccessible to
the poor. Cuba is forbidden access to this knowledge. Elena, who never
tires of sending information that could raise the scientific levels of
our specialists, sent that book, among other materials, which contains
more than a hundred different simple and accessible exercises.

Nowadays rehabilitation acquires special and new meaning as it relates
to life. Everyone is increasing their mental and physical potential up
to the age of 35; some maintain that it is 30. From that age on, they
can go on for two or three more decades enjoying good health and
physical performance, holding on to them from the above-mentioned age
until advanced years at the end of which, life is extinguished. Human
beings are content to look after themselves until the end.

The service is of benefit to all the inhabitants of this country, where
today they are born having a life expectancy of 77 years and which
continues to increase. Not only adults who are younger than 35 or 40,
victims of all kinds of accidents, but also more and more children
require the noble care provided by the rehabilitator.

In more than 600 centres, located in polyclinics and hospitals, or
offering their services abroad, about ten thousand rehabilitators are
at work, while a thousand more are being trained with increasing
thoroughness and exigency.

Elena Pedraza is 97 years old and continues to offer her professional
services as a consultant. She is a fine example of intellectual, woman
and Communist. She was a member of the same party as Ricardo Fonseca,
Luis Corvalán, Volodia Teitelboim and Gladys Marín, who recently passed
away, and many others who dedicated their lives or died for their
beliefs.

On behalf of the people who, challenging the empire, began the path of
the Socialist Revolution more than half a century ago, I pay tribute to
their work and to their example.

Havana, January 7, 2008, 5:12 p.m.