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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Concerning the article “Four stages in the history of the Centro Médico Nacional Siglo XXI”

David Santos-Atherton^a

^aMédico nefrólogo

Email: dsantosa75@prodigy.net.mx

I continue to receive the Revista Médica del Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social and to read its good articles. The one about “Cuatro etapas en la historia del Centro Médico Nacional Siglo XXI del IMSS” ("Four stages in the history of the Centro Médico Nacional Siglo XXI del IMSS") touched me and brought me many years back to the beginning of our beloved Centro Médico, where I spent the most important part of my professional life. I entered IMSS a few weeks before the inauguration of the Hospital de Pediatría and spent there almost 30 years of beautiful and valuable learning and growth. I thank Dr. Guillermo Fajardo Ortiz for writing that story. Our first directors were Dr. Federico Gómez, then Luis Velasco Cándano, Ernesto Díaz del Castillo, Silvestre Frenk, Gonzalo Gutiérrez, et cetera. My professional growth happened thanks to the opportunities that IMSS offered me at the Centro Médico. A few months after the inauguration of the center, visitors began arriving from Latin America to get to know the Hospital de Pediatría and probably the others. With some frequency they called on me to show the halls of the Hospital de Pediatría to visiting pediatricians and, once, when finishing up and saying goodbye to Dr. Federico Gómez, a doctor told him: "What a great hospital you have, doctor!" And the reply was "I don’t have a great hospital yet. It's just a brand new building, but the young doctors who work here today will tell if it becomes a great hospital." "You are a clear sign that our Hospital de Pediatría is a great hospital," said the doctor. In my travels to South America I found that social security was not widely accepted and was considered of poor quality in those countries. The Centro Médico de México showed them the great possibilities of medical care that could be achieved.

Now, at 85 years old, I live in a quiet area of the city of Guanajuato, enjoying every day to the most with its beautiful sunrises and sunsets. I no longer have a medical job but I enjoy reading about the good things that the young people I knew are doing. It saddens me to learn of the death of my friends with whom I started work at the Hospital de Pediatría.

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