The Good Examples Are Eternal

Writing about Prof. Adib Jatene is to propose the challenge of looking at a human being of unusual facets. Although I do not have the pretension to cover in this article the entire unique figure he was, I will take on this challenge as a tribute to the welcome opportunity I have had to live with him at the Heart Institute of the Clinics Hospital of the Faculty of Medicine of USP, for more than three decades. Prof. Adib was a brilliant thinker and a worker and tireless innovator in search for answers to crucial questions of the society of his time. Recognized as a scientist, surgeon and admirable teacher, he was also a bold public manager (as Secretary of State for Health Department and Minister of Health) and head of an exemplary family. I dare opine that all these qualities have the source in one of his most outstanding and brilliant features: the ever jovial look at the things in life (he invariably discovered something unusual where most saw only the obvious) and passion for the human being. Yes, the compassionate look at his fellows made Prof. Adib Jatene example of an intellectual elite that has a real commitment to the country and its citizens. His tireless efforts and his pursuit of perfection, possible in all his actions were nothing more than his aspiration, always there to help people who suffer to feel better. There were many times when, in reflective conversations, Prof. Jatene cited Mother Teresa of Calcutta's quote to explain the flame that should guide the intelligence in the search for solution of the most different aspects of human life: " Without faith there is no love, without love there is no self-giving, and who is not able to make such giving is not prepared to deal with suffering. " Only full delivery to the common good is able to explain the unusual trajectory of Professor, from his childhood in Xapuri, Acre-where he was born on June 4, 1929, and also where he lost his father, yet when he was two years old, victim of fulminant disease acquired in the forest. After all, it would not be unusual a fatherless young from the corners of the country, to follow the path of so many other millions of Brazilians who, while valuable in their daily struggle for survival, remain anonymous. But the story of this man who was …