São Paulo – Members of the government and society paid homage this Thursday (23) to cardiologist and former Brazilian minister of Health, Adib Jatene, during the inauguration of a new building of the cardiology hospital HCor in São Paulo. The building is named after him. Jatene was honoured by the country’s vice-president Michel Temer, as well as Alexandre Padilha, minister of Health, Geraldo Alckmin, governor of the state of São Paulo, and Fernando Haddad, mayor of the city of São Paulo.
“Adib Jatene is a true leader, who doesn’t need to be in a public office,” stated Temer. “He is an extraordinary leader,” he emphasized. For Temer, Jatene is “an example for the Brazilian people”. Temer participated at the ceremony as the acting president, since president Dilma Rousseff is in Davos, Switzerland, to participate at the World Economic Forum.
Alckmin referred to Jatene as a “great man”. “A great man is someone who makes everyone around him feel great,” said the governor. Minister Padilha reminded those who were present of the day that Jatene, a cardiologist, suffered a heart attack. “He told me that when he felt he could be having a heart attack, he took the car and drove to the hospital,” he recalled. Haddad, in turn, highlighted Jatene’s measures to improve teaching in the Brazilian medical schools.
Jatene is the director-general at HCor and was very moved when he spoke of the Arab community’s role in Brazil. For him, the new building “honors the community of which I am part”. “We are all heirs and pioneers. Men and women who came here without knowing the language, raised their families and educated their children.” Jatene was born in the northern Brazilian state of Acre, the son of Lebanese immigrants. HCor is also an institution of Arab origin, as it was founded by ladies of the Syrian community.
Also participating at the event were Davi Uip, São Paulo State secretary of Health, José de Filippi Junior, São Paulo municipal secretary of Health, Gilberto Kassab, former mayor of São Paulo, Paulo Skaf, president of the Federation of Industries of the State of São Paulo (Fiesp), Michel Alaby, director-general of the Arab-Brazilian Chamber of Commerce, and Riad Younes, the entity’s Marketing vice-president, as well as various representatives of the Arab community.
At the end of the event, a work by artist Miguel dos Santos, from the northeastern state of Paraíba, was shown, in reference to Jatene’s contribution to medicine. The work is exhibited on the second floor of the building.
The building
The building inaugurated this Thursday is the fifth building of the HCor complex, and is dedicated to highly complex treatments in cardiology, neurology and oncology. The unit took two and a half years to be completed and cost R$ 145 million (US$ 60.5 million).
The new unit has 38 rooms for inpatients, an exclusive floor for chemotherapy and a convention centre for 210 people. The surgery centre has two hybrid rooms, for highly complex procedures, supported by high definition medical imaging.
The building also houses the Gamma Knife, considered the most precise medical equipment in the world for neurosurgery, treating brain tumors with gamma rays, without opening the patient.
As well as advanced medical technology, the building located in the Paraíso neighborhood, in front of the institution’s headquarters, was constructed following sustainability concepts for rational water use and electricity.
*Translated by Silvia Lindsey
