The French philosopher Michel de Montaigne is credited with the phrase that says: “The surest sign of wisdom is constant serenity.” If this axiom is true, then we can conclude that Dr. Cipriano Andrés (Anaica-Collo, Peru, 1942) is a wise man. You can feel the serenity he exudes when we talk to him. About to turn 82, this doctor is reluctant to leave his profession. Now they have asked him to slow down, but until recently he was still making house calls and would cover hundreds of kilometers in a single day. He did it, despite his age, in the midst of a pandemic. “I was not afraid at any time”, he explains. He says the first thing he asks for when he visits a patient at home is a chair. “I dry and listen”.
A Hollywood script could be written with his story. He emigrated alone, at the age of 18, to Spain to study Medicine. It was 1960. “I had passed the university entrance exam, but there were no places. In Lima there was only one Faculty of Medicine”, he says. He boarded an ocean liner along with a hundred other young men on their way to Europe. Some – he remembers – were going to Italy, others to Germany, and a last group to Spain. “Everything depended on the family’s economic capacity: the cheapest were Spain and Italy.” He explains that his, lower-middle class and engaged in agriculture, could afford to send him to Spain because the Peruvian currency “was strong then”.
The idea of ??crossing the Atlantic came almost by chance. His father, who was taking the harvest to Lima to sell it, had some Chinese clients in the capital, the Changs. Talking one day with the head of the family, he told him that one of his sons was in Barcelona studying Medicine and he was doing very well. This was the genesis of Cipriano’s trip to Catalonia.
After a 23-day sea journey, he arrived in the Catalan capital, where the Chang’s son was waiting for him. “He explained to me that his career was not going as well as he had told his family, that he had a few setbacks.” He advised him to go to Madrid under the pretext that maybe there the career would not be so hard. But in Madrid the scenario was similar. In the end he ended up in Zaragoza, where he graduated.
In the summer, while studying, I worked to earn some money. He even traveled abroad. He worked in Germany and France, doing the harvest in Perpignan. He also did the same task in Carinyena (Aragon). He even worked as a waiter in Lloret de Mar.
After finishing his degree, he went to Barcelona. “They said there was work there and better prospects.” After a short stay in Castellfollit de la Roca, he ended up in Roquetes del Garraf, an urban center – belonging to Sant Pere de Ribes – which was just flourishing. They gave him the position on an eventual basis and the first thing he did was go in search of his family – wife and a son, at that time – who were in Zaragoza. Today he explains that he has two and a half children: two biological and a third who is from his older brother (who is now 99 years old and had 13 children). He explains that during one of the visits he made to Peru with his wife, who is Spanish, he told his brother that if he wanted he could take one of his children to Spain. “Immediately his eyes opened, he realized that the child would have a chance.” He says that for them “he is like their own son”. He has a diploma in nursing. One of the biologicals is also dedicated to healthcare: he is head of the vascular surgery service at the Josep Trueta hospital in Girona. His daughter is a high school principal.
Despite having the place in Les Roquetes, his idea was to go to the Clínic hospital to do the specialty. “He only had a degree in medicine and surgery”. But precisely at that moment a hospital was being inaugurated in Sant Pere de Ribes, Sant Camil (now it is the Garraf Health Consortium). It was 1976. “I had no hope that they would take me, because I didn’t have a specialty. I told the head of internal medicine that I wanted to go to the Clinic to specialize. And he answered me: ‘Tomorrow at 8 o’clock I want you to be here'”.
In the end, he would end up doing his entire career in public health at this center, where he also worked as an intensivist. “There was a time when they wanted to create the intensive care unit, but we didn’t have an intensivist. They told me to get ready to get my degree so I could open the unit.”
When he turned 65, he was retired, even though he didn’t want to. But after a while, Assistència Sanitària proposed to him to collaborate with them – as a freelancer – in the home emergency service (SUD). He accessed it. Almost fifteen years have passed since then and they still collaborate, although it has slowed down.
Until recently, every Monday it was his turn to get behind the wheel to provide the service. “It covered all of Garraf and Baix Penedés, up to Coma-ruga: Vendrell, Cunit, Cubelles, Sitges, Vilanova, Canyelles… it’s a large area,” he explains. “Depending on the day, I could do many kilometers. Especially in the time of covid”. He assures that, despite his age, he was never afraid to visit the sick at home in the midst of a pandemic. “They told us it was important to wash our hands and respect the distance”. Remember that at first you had to put on the PPE (personal protection equipment). “You either went there or you didn’t, and I went there. I have never left a service pending”.
He says that keeping his distance did not cause him any setbacks. I already practiced it before. “The first thing I ask for when I visit a patient is a chair: dry and listen. That is why the issue of distance was not foreign to me. We are chatting for a while, without hurry. No MRIs, just a chair. It works”. He claims that the vast majority of patients he has encountered “have anxiety or depressive type problems”. “What people want is for you to listen to them,” he says.
Now, from Assistance, they have asked him to slow down. More than anything, because of his age. He says that he has not found doctors of his generation who are still working. “There must be, but I haven’t seen any.”
Assistència explains to La Vanguardia that there is. They are doctors – they point out – who, like Dr. Andrés, are self-employed and therefore can continue to work, despite their advanced age, and receive a pension. Xavier González, responsible for the SUD of this mutual, explains that what distinguishes Dr. Andrés is that he chose the home care service at his age. “I’m 53, I’ve done this job for a long time, and when you’ve traveled 200 km to attend six visits, you notice it.”
Dr. Andrés suspects that the motivation to continue working comes from a very young age. “In Peru you start working the same moment you start walking. The rural environment is tough.” He even had a small foray into politics. A local formation of the Roquetes del Garraf, which won the elections, signed him as an independent. He even served as accidental mayor when the incumbent was away. He is also a member of the association of Peruvian doctors in Barcelona, ??which has carried out several solidarity actions in Peru.
He says that nothing stops him when it comes to him. “I always say the same thing to companies when they ask me until when: ‘As long as you want’. If you’re having a good time, why stop at all? Always, of course, that the company wants and you are able”, he concludes.
