The French philosopher Michel de Montaigne is credited with the phrase that reads: “The truest sign of wisdom is constant serenity.” If this axiom is true, then it can be concluded that Dr. Cipriano Andrés (Anaica-Collo, Peru, 1942) is a wise man. One is able to perceive the serenity that comes off when you talk to him. About to turn 82, this doctor refuses to abandon his profession. Now they have asked him to slow down, but until recently he was making house calls, driving hundreds of kilometers in a single day. He even made them, and despite his age, in the middle of a pandemic. “I was not afraid at any time,” he confesses. He says that the first thing he asks for when he goes to visit a patient at his home is a chair. “I sit and listen.”
His story gives for a Hollywood script. He emigrated by himself, at the age of 18, to Spain to study medicine. The year was 1960. “He had passed the university entrance exam but there were no places. In Lima there was only one medical school, ”he says. He embarked on an ocean liner with 100 other young people bound for Europe. Some – he relates – went to Italy, others to Germany and a last group to Spain. “Everything depended on the economic capacity of the family: the cheapest was Spain and Italy.” He explains that his family, lower-middle class and dedicated to agriculture, could afford to send it to Spain because the Peruvian currency “was strong then.”
The idea of ??crossing the pond arose almost by chance. His father, who took the harvest to Lima to sell it, had some Chinese clients in the capital, the Changs. Talking one fine 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. That was the genesis of Cipriano’s trip to Catalonia.
After a 23-day journey by sea, he arrived in the Catalan capital, where the Chang’s son was waiting for him. “He told me that the race was not going as well for him as he had told his family, that he had a few failures.” He advised her to go to Madrid on the pretext that perhaps the race there would not be so tough. But in Madrid they drew a similar scenario. In the end he ended up in Zaragoza, where he graduated.
In the summers, while I was studying, I worked to earn some money. He even went abroad. He worked in Germany and France, harvesting in Perpignan. The same task was carried out in Cariñena (Aragón). He even worked as a waiter in Lloret de Mar.
Finished the race, he headed for Barcelona. “They said there was work there and better prospects.” After a brief stay in Castellfollit de la Roca, he ended up in Les Roquetes del Garraf, an urban center -belonging to Sant Pere de Ribes- that was just flourishing. They eventually gave him the position and the first thing he did was go in search of his family – wife and son at that time – who were in Zaragoza.
Today he explains that he has two and a half children: two biological and a third that belongs to his older brother (who is now 99 years old and had 13 offspring). He recounts that on one of the visits they 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 were opened, he realized that the little boy would have a chance.” He says that for them “it is like their own child.” He has a nursing degree. One of the biologists is also dedicated to healthcare: he is the head of the vascular surgery service at the Josep Trueta Hospital in Girona. His daughter is a high school principal.
Despite having a 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 just at that time a hospital was inaugurated in Sant Pere de Ribes, the Sant Camil (now it is the Garraf health consortium). He was running in 1976. “I had no hope of being caught because I didn’t have a specialty. I told the head of internal medicine that I wanted to go to the Clínic to specialize. And he answered me: ‘What is this about going to Barcelona? Tomorrow at 8 o’clock I want you here.
In the end, he would end up doing his entire career in public health at that center, where he also worked as an intensivist. “There was a time when they wanted to create the intensive care unit but we did not have an intensivist. They told me to get ready to get my degree and thus be able to open the unit”.
At the age of 65, however, they retired him, although he did not want to. But after a while, Assistència Sanitària suggested that he collaborate with them -as a freelancer- in the home emergency service (SUD). He agreed. Almost 15 years have passed since then and they still collaborate, although the pace has slowed down.
Until recently, every Monday it was his turn to get behind the wheel to give the service. “It covered all of Garraf and Baix Penedés, up to Coma-ruga: Vendrell, Cunit, Cubelles, Sitges, Vilanova, Canyelles… it’s an extensive area,” he says. “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 that it was important to wash our hands and respect the distance.” He remembers that at first the PPE (personal protection equipment) had to be sheathed. “Either you went or you didn’t go, and I went. I have never left a service pending”.
He says that keeping his distance was not a setback for him. He already practiced it before. “The first thing I ask for when I go to visit a patient is a chair: I sit and listen. That’s why distance was not alien to me. We are talking for a while, without rushing. No MRIs, one chair. Works”. He affirms that the vast majority of the patients with whom he has come across “have anxiety or depressive problems”. “What people want is to be heard.”
Now, from Assistència, they have asked him to slow down. More than anything because of his age. He says that he has not come across doctors from his farm who are working yet. “There must be, but I have not come across any.”
From Assistència they explain to La Vanguardia that there are. They are doctors -they point out- who, like Dr. Andrés, are self-employed and therefore can continue working despite being of advanced age and receive a pension. Xavier González, head of the SUD of this mutual, explains that what makes Dr. Andrés peculiar is that he chose the home care service at his age. “I am 53, I have done this job for a long time, and when you have traveled 200 km to attend six visits, you notice it.”
Doctor Andrés suspects that the motivation to continue working comes from a very young age. “In Peru you start working at the same moment you start walking. The rural environment is hard”. He even had a little foray into politics. A local formation from Les Roquetes del Garraf, which ultimately won the elections, signed him as an independent. He even came to act as accidental mayor when the incumbent was out. He is also a member of the Barcelona Association of Peruvian Doctors, which has carried out several solidarity actions in Peru.
He says he has no problem stopping when it’s his turn. “I always say the same thing to companies when they ask me until when: ‘Until you want. If you’re having a good time, why do you have to give it up altogether? Provided, of course, that the company wants to and you are able to”.
Of course, he has no objection to staying active as long as work does not interfere with one of his greatest hobbies, golf. “I play in two teams of yayoflautas, as I call them. We are federated and we travel on weekends to play ”.
He points out that, more than practicing golf, what he does is play pitch and putt. “Swinging 500 meters is not for me.” He claims that, right now, he is between a 2 and 3 handicap. “It’s very good, I’m winning a trophy,” he concludes.
