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René Gerónimo Favaloro was born on July 14, 1923 in La Plata, capital of the province of Buenos Aires, Argentina. He grew up in the "El Mondongo" neighborhood. His parents were Italian immigrants; his mother, Geni Ida Raffaelli de Favaloro was a dressmaker, who taught him to value work and effort; his father, Juan Bautista Favaloro was a carpenter. His maternal grandmother instilled in him a love of nature and respect for his country. For him, she was the most exceptional woman he had ever known
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In 1936, he entered the secondary school of the National School of La Plata, where he learned ideals such as freedom, justice, ethics and respect. He was sure that things had to be achieved with passion, effort and sacrifice.
In 1941 he began his university studies at the Faculty of Medical Sciences of the University of La Plata. In the third year he began working at the Polyclinic Hospital where he consolidated his vocation for patient care for the first time. He graduated in 1949. -
In 1950 he moved to Jacinto Arauz,a small village in La Pampa, where he worked as a village doctor together with his brother Juan José Favaloro. They created a medical care center,raised the social and educational level of the region, reduced infant mortality in the area,infections in childbirth, malnutrition,organized a blood bank with donors and held talks on medical care in the community. Rene went to this village to replace a local doctor for three months, which ended up being twelve years.
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On November 18, 1950, he married Maria Antonia Delgado, with whom he began his romance in high school
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In 1962 he decided to travel to Ohio, USA, with very few resources and a basic knowledge of English, to join the service of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery at the Cleveland Clinic. He first worked as a resident but soon stood out and was part of the surgical team. Favaloro had doubts about traveling, including abandoning his 12 years of rural medicine, but thought that when he returned from the United States his help to the community could be even greater.
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In 1967, Favaloro began thinking about using the saphenous vein in coronary surgery. He put his ideas into practice for the first time on May 9 of that year, a historic day for medicine. The standardization of this technique called ''bypass or myocardial revascularization surgery'' was the fundamental work of his career, which made his prestige transcend the limits of that country, since the procedure radically changed the history of coronary diseases.
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His love for his country made him decide to return to Argentina in 1971, with the dream of developing a center of excellence similar to the Cleveland Clinic, which combined medical care, research and education.
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With this objective in mind, in 1975 he created the Favaloro Foundation for medical teaching and research, which continues to this day to attend to patients according to their needs and to teach innovative techniques to doctors throughout Latin America.
In 1992, the Institute of Cardiology and Cardiovascular Surgery was inaugurated at the Foundation, while in August 1998 he creates the Favaloro University. -
Between 1996 and 1999 the Foundation entered into serious financial problems as the country was going through a huge economic crisis, years in which tax exemptions and state subsidies were withdrawn from the Foundation and a huge debt began to accumulate with social works and the Pami.
Two days before he died, Rene, in desperation, sent a letter to the then president Fernando de la Rua, explaining that he needed help. -
Favaloro said, "I could not live if I did not have a challenge ahead of me based on ideals and utopias." He was not willing to accept bribes, returns, and leave behind this ethic and his principles, because of this fact, upon realizing that he would probably never find that dreamed-of utopia, he decided to make a tragic decision and end his life by shooting himself in the heart on July 29, 2000, at the age of 77.
