Dr. Ramón M. Suárez Calderón (1895–1981) was a

scientist A scientist is a person who Scientific method, researches to advance knowledge in an Branches of science, area of the natural sciences. In classical antiquity, there was no real ancient analog of a modern scientist. Instead, philosophers engag ...

cardiologist Cardiology () is the study of the heart. Cardiology is a branch of medicine that deals with disorders of the heart and the cardiovascular system. The field includes medical diagnosis and treatment of congenital heart defects, coronary artery di ...

educator A teacher, also called a schoolteacher or formally an educator, is a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence, or virtue, via the practice of teaching. ''Informally'' the role of teacher may be taken on by anyone (e.g. w ...

and hematologíst whose investigations led him to identify the proper and effective treatment of a specific disease known as

tropical sprue Tropical sprue is a malabsorption disease commonly found in tropical regions, marked with abnormal flattening of the villi and inflammation of the lining of the small intestine. It differs significantly from coeliac sprue. It appears to be a mor ...

. He also refined the protocols for numerous diagnostic procedures, such as

electrocardiography Electrocardiography is the process of producing an electrocardiogram (ECG or EKG), a recording of the heart's electrical activity through repeated cardiac cycles. It is an electrogram of the heart which is a graph of voltage versus time of t ...

and

radioisotope A radionuclide (radioactive nuclide, radioisotope or radioactive isotope) is a nuclide that has excess numbers of either neutrons or protons, giving it excess nuclear energy, and making it unstable. This excess energy can be used in one of three ...

, for the clinical identification and treatment of the disease which causes heart rheumatism.

Early years

Suárez Calderon was born in the town of Loiza in

Puerto Rico ; abbreviated PR), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, is a Government of Puerto Rico, self-governing Caribbean Geography of Puerto Rico, archipelago and island organized as an Territories of the United States, unincorporated territo ...

. His family moved to

San Juan San Juan, Spanish for Saint John (disambiguation), Saint John, most commonly refers to: * San Juan, Puerto Rico * San Juan, Argentina * San Juan, Metro Manila, a highly urbanized city in the Philippines San Juan may also refer to: Places Arge ...

, the capital of Puerto Rico, where he received his primary and secondary education. He attended the Central High School of Santurce and studied medicine at the

Medical College of Virginia The VCU Medical Center (VCU Health), formerly known as the Medical College of Virginia (MCV), is the medical campus of Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), located in downtown Richmond, Virginia, United States. As MCV, VCU Medical Center merged ...

in the United States. In 1917 he earned his medical degree and moved to the

Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles of the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean. It shares a Maritime boundary, maritime border with Puerto Rico to the east and ...

, where he was hired as the medical physician at a sugar plantation.Revista para los Medicos de Puerto Rico
/ref> He returned to Puerto Rico in 1920, and in 1928 he was named Medical Director of San Juan's Municipal Hospital and faculty member of the Tropical School of Medicine. Tragedy struck when his 5-year-old daughter died of

Leukemia Leukemia ( also spelled leukaemia; pronounced ) is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and produce high numbers of abnormal blood cells. These blood cells are not fully developed and are called ''blasts'' or '' ...

. Suárez Calderón, who at the time was the President of the Medical Association of Puerto Rico, named a hospital which he founded after his daughter.

School of Tropical Medicine

During his years at the School of Tropical Medicine, Suárez Calderón worked together with Dr.

Bailey Ashford Colonel Bailey Kelly Ashford (September 18, 1873 – November 1, 1934) was an American physician who had a military career in the United States Army, and afterward taught full-time at the School of Tropical Medicine in Puerto Rico, which he hel ...

. Dr. Ashford was a member of the

United States Army Medical Corps The Medical Corps (MC) of the U.S. Army is a staff corps (non-combat specialty branch) of the U.S. Army Medical Department (AMEDD) consisting of commissioned medical officers – physicians with either an M.D. or a D.O. degree, at least o ...

, and had accompanied the military expedition to

during the Puerto Rico Campaign of the

Spanish–American War The Spanish–American War (April 21 – August 13, 1898) was fought between Restoration (Spain), Spain and the United States in 1898. It began with the sinking of the USS Maine (1889), USS ''Maine'' in Havana Harbor in Cuba, and resulted in the ...

in 1898. Ashford assumed a full-time faculty position at the School of Tropical Medicine and continued his interest in tropical medicine. Together with the

University of Puerto Rico The University of Puerto Rico (Spanish language, Spanish: ''Universidad de Puerto Rico;'' often shortened to UPR) is the main List of state and territorial universities in the United States, public university system in the Commonwealth (U.S. i ...

campus at Rio Piedras, Ashford helped to plan and build the Institute of Tropical Medicine. Dr. Ashford was the first to describe and successfully treat

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

hookworm Hookworms are Gastrointestinal tract, intestinal, Hematophagy, blood-feeding, parasitic Nematode, roundworms that cause types of infection known as helminthiases. Hookworm infection is found in many parts of the world, and is common in areas with ...

in 1899. A tireless clinician, Ashford conducted an exhaustive study of the

anemia Anemia (also spelt anaemia in British English) is a blood disorder in which the blood has a reduced ability to carry oxygen. This can be due to a lower than normal number of red blood cells, a reduction in the amount of hemoglobin availabl ...

caused by hookworm infestation, which was responsible for as many as 12,000 deaths a year. Upon the recommendation of Ashford, the American College of Physicians granted a fellowship to Suárez Calderon, which enabled Suárez Calderon to continue Ashford's work and investigations on anemia after the latter's death. In 1938, Suárez Calderon published his scientific findings on the

Tropical Sprue Tropical sprue is a malabsorption disease commonly found in tropical regions, marked with abnormal flattening of the villi and inflammation of the lining of the small intestine. It differs significantly from coeliac sprue. It appears to be a mor ...

Scientific investigations

In 1940, Suárez Calderón was named director of internal medicine of the Tropical School of Medicine. During his directorship he conducted scientific investigations related to hypertension and other cardiovascular diseases. He also conducted investigations related to rheumatic fever and its causes. In 1945, Suárez Calderón published his findings in the effective treatment of Tropical Sprue associated anemia with the application of complex methods, such as the use of folic acid, electrocardiography and radioisotope in the ''American Journal of Medicine''. Suárez Calderon was also named to the board of directors of ''Blood'', a new medical magazine, thus becoming the first and only Puerto Rican member of that publication. Suárez Calderón, who was also a member of the Association of American Physicians, founded a center of clinical investigations at the Mimiya Hospital. He published 155 articles related to his investigations in the field of cardiology in various scientific journals.

Written works

Two of the published works by Suárez Calderon are: *''Tratamiento moderno del asma bronquial;'' published by the Boletín Asociación Médica de Puerto Rico; 1925 *''Glucose and the heart;'' published by Boletín Asociación Médica de Puerto Rico; 1974.

Legacy

Suárez Calderon continued to teach at the school of medicine in Puerto Rico. He was also the personal doctor of

Pablo Casals Pau Casals i Defilló (Catalan: ; 29 December 187622 October 1973), known in English as Pablo Casals,Luis Muñoz Marín José Luis Alberto Muñoz Marín (February 18, 1898April 30, 1980) was a Puerto Rican journalist, politician, statesman and was the first elected governor of Puerto Rico, regarded as the "Architect of the Puerto Rico Commonwealth." In 1948 he ...

. He died in 1981 at his home in San Juan. He was buried at Porta Coeli Cemetery in

Bayamón, Puerto Rico Bayamón (, ) is a Bayamón barrio-pueblo, city and Municipalities of Puerto Rico, municipality in Puerto Rico. Located on the northeastern coastal plain, it is bounded by Guaynabo, Puerto Rico, Guaynabo to the east, Toa Alta, Puerto Rico, Toa A ...

. In 1992, the City of San Juan inaugurated the ''Dr. Ramón M. Suárez Calderón Cardiovascular Center of Puerto Rico and the Caribbean.'' It is the main medical and academic center in the region dedicated to the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of cardiovascular diseases. In 1999, the first heart transplant in Puerto Rico was made in said medical institution.El Centro Cardiovascular de Puerto Rico y del Caribe “Dr. Ramón M. Suárez Calderón”
/ref>

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Suarez Calderon, Ramon M. 1895 births 1981 deaths Puerto Rican cardiologists Medical College of Virginia alumni People from Loíza, Puerto Rico Puerto Rican educators Puerto Rican hematologists