New Contributions on the Treatment of Pain, Anxiety and Agitation in the Medical Case of Eva Duarte Perón. Functional Antalgic Neurosurgery in 1952
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.47924/neurotarget2011297Keywords:
history, medicine, neurosurgery, Argentina, Eva Perón, prefrontal lobotomy, functional neurosurgery, treatment, alleviation, pain, intractable pain, metastatic cancer, anxiety, agitationAbstract
The details of the final illness, treatment and death of Eva Perón in 1952, have remained veiled in mystery for many years. Since the 1990‟s there have been several witnesses who have attempted to clarify the last stage of her life. On February 2011, the journal World Neurosurgery (Elsevier©) accepted for publication our article entitled "Recent evidences of prefrontal lobotomy in the last months of the illness of Eva Perón". This research presents the statements of George Udvarhelyi, who although born in Hungary, resided and trained as a neurosurgeon in Argentina between 1948 and 1953. He worked with Ramón Carrillo (also a neurosurgeon, Secretary of Public Health of Argentina, and close to President Juan Domingo Perón). Udvarhelyi stated that he had participated in a prefrontal lobotomy performed on Eva Perón before her death. This was apparently done for pain relief and control of agitation and anxiety in the last months of her life. Our research found evidence that James L. Poppen from the Lahey Clinic, Boston, Massachusetts, USA, was most likely the neurosurgeon who performed this procedure. This study gives validity to Dr. Udvarhelyi‟s claims, putting them in the context of the then current medical and neurosurgical practices in Argentina in the middle of the 20th Century. Our objective is to shed light on the final chapter in the life of Eva Perón and offer an alternative viewpoint to the official history of that time. Through this medical case we have also tried to understand how frequent the illness and the treatment of individuals in power are kept secret from the public. However, the truth can eventually be found using scientific methods, without preconceptions and/or conflicts of interest. We have tried to understand the time and place of these events, illustrating the therapeutic fashions and the slow but sure evolution of surgical and medical science in search of relief and cure.
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Copyright (c) 2011 Daniel E. Nijensohn, Luis E. Savastano, Alberto D. Kaplan, Edward R. Laws Jr., Fabián Cremaschi
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