São Paulo – The physician and former Brazilian Health minister Adib Jatene passed away last Friday evening (14th). He was an inpatient at São Paulo’s heart hospital Hospital do Coração (HCor), and died from complications of an acute myocardial infarction. Of Lebanese descent, Jatene was the general director of HCor and a pioneer of cardiac surgery in Brazil. He was state secretary for Health (1979-1982) during former governor Paulo Maluf’s administration in São Paulo and served two terms as the Brazilian minister of Health, under presidents Fernando Collor (1992) and Fernando Henrique Cardoso (1995-1996).
The Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff, who is in Australia attending the G20 Summit, has released a statement regretting Jatene’s passing. “Brazil has lost one of its dear sons this past Friday. The death of physician Adib Jatene has our nation mourning. He was one of Brazil’s foremost cardiologists and one of those who helped establish the CPMF [tax on banking transactions], which enabled us to allocate more funds to public healthcare. I extend my condolences to the widow, Mrs. Aurice, and to the couple’s sons and daughters: Ieda, Marcelo, Fábio and Iara,” the president’s statement reads.
The Ministry of Health has also released a statement of condolence. “The Ministry of Health is saddened by the news of the passing of the physician, professor and former Health minister Adib Jatene. Since his early days working from a workshop in the back of his house, this engineer of the heart has ushered in major innovations in cardiac surgery. In the medical profession, his techniques are internationally recognized. As the minister of Health and a militant for public healthcare, he has made his mark through his unflinching quest for improving medical attention to the population and strengthening Brazil’s [public healthcare system],” according to the statement.
Jatene’s body was buried last Saturday (15th) at the Araçá cemetery in western São Paulo. Adib Domingos Jatene was born in Xapuri, Acre. In 1953, while living in São Paulo, he graduated from the School of Medicine of the University of São Paulo (Fmusp). He did postgraduate work at Hospital das Clínicas, under the supervision of professor Euryclides de Jesus Zerbini. HCor, where Jatene served as director, was founded by the Arab community.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
