Ramón Carrillo facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Ramón Carrillo
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| Minister of Public Health | |
| In office 11 March 1949 – 23 July 1954 |
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| President | Juan Perón |
| Preceded by | post created |
| Succeeded by | Raúl Bevecqua |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 7 March 1906 Santiago del Estero, Argentina |
| Died | 20 December 1956 (aged 50) Belém, Brazil |
| Political party | Peronist Party |
| Alma mater | University of Buenos Aires |
| Profession | Neurosurgeon, physician, and academic |
Ramón Carrillo (born March 7, 1906 – died December 20, 1956) was an important Argentine doctor and scientist. He was a neurosurgeon, which means he was a doctor who performed operations on the brain and nervous system. He was also a neurobiologist, studying the nervous system. From 1949 to 1954, he became Argentina's very first Minister of Public Health. This made him in charge of improving health for everyone in the country.
Contents
Early Life and Education
Ramón Carrillo was born in Santiago del Estero, Argentina, on March 7, 1906. He came from an Afro-Argentine family. He studied at the University of Buenos Aires' medical school. In 1929, he graduated as the best student in his class, earning a Gold Medal.
He really liked studying the brain and nervous system. He worked with a famous neurosurgeon named Manuel Balado. Together, they published some of Carrillo's first scientific papers. After graduating, he received a special grant to travel to Europe. There, he worked in top science labs to learn even more about the brain.
Career in Medicine and Public Health
Carrillo returned to Buenos Aires in the mid-1930s. This time in Argentina was difficult for many people. Carrillo saw that his country was facing many problems, including widespread poverty.
He became friends with many important people in Argentine culture and politics. These included famous tango artists and nationalist thinkers. He also kept strong connections with leading brain scientists in Argentina.
Brain Research and Discoveries
Between 1930 and 1945, Carrillo did a lot of important research on brain cells. He found new ways to stain and see these cells under a microscope. He also studied how different brains evolved across different animals.
Carrillo also developed new ways to diagnose brain problems. He improved a method called iodoventriculography, which used a special dye to see inside the brain. He also worked on an early form of tomography, which takes detailed pictures of the body. This was a step towards modern computerized tomography (CT scans). He even combined this with electroencephalograms (EEGs), which measure brain waves.
He studied many brain conditions, like "Carrillo's disease," which affects the optic nerve. He also performed brain grafts in rabbits to study brain diseases. In 1942, when he was 36, Carrillo became the head of Neurosurgery at the University of Buenos Aires. He trained many future important doctors.
Working in Public Hospitals
During these years, Carrillo focused on research and teaching. In 1939, he became the Head of Neurology and Neurosurgery at the Central Military Hospital. This job showed him the real state of public health in Argentina. He saw that many people, especially in poorer areas, suffered from diseases linked to poverty.
He found that Argentina had only about half the hospital beds it needed. Also, these beds were not spread out evenly across the country.
Carrillo met Colonel Juan Domingo Perón, who was a patient at the hospital. Perón was becoming a powerful political figure. They had many talks, and Perón convinced Carrillo to help plan new health policies for the country.
Argentina's First Health Minister
In February 1946, Juan Perón was elected president of Argentina. He first made Carrillo the head of the State Secretary of Public Health. Then, on March 11, 1949, President Perón created a new cabinet-level ministry for health, and Carrillo became Argentina's first Minister of Public Health.
Carrillo brought in other talented doctors and scientists to help him. President Perón's wife, Evita, also helped a lot. She worked with Carrillo through her well-funded Eva Perón Foundation, supporting many of his health projects.
Carrillo's time as Health Minister brought huge improvements to public health in Argentina.
- He greatly increased the number of hospital beds, from 66,300 in 1946 to 132,000 in 1954.
- He built 234 new public hospitals and clinics.
- He launched strong campaigns that wiped out diseases like malaria in just two years.
- He lowered the death rate from tuberculosis a lot.
- He ended epidemics of diseases like typhus.
- He drastically reduced the number of babies who died before their first birthday.
Carrillo believed in focusing on preventing diseases before they happened. He also thought that health services should be planned centrally but managed locally. He even worked with Argentine Railways to create a "Health Train." This train had mobile clinics that traveled to remote and poor parts of the country, bringing medical care to people who needed it most.
Carrillo resigned from his position on June 16, 1954.
Personal Life
Ramón Carrillo never married. He supported his mother and his ten younger brothers and sisters. In 1937, he had a serious illness that caused him to have high blood pressure and bad headaches for the rest of his life. A doctor named Salomón Chichilnisky saved him, and they became close friends.
After a military coup removed Perón from power in 1955, Carrillo was forced to leave Argentina. He died on December 20, 1956, in Belém, Brazil, when he was 50 years old.
Legacy
Ramón Carrillo is now seen as the person who created Argentina's modern national health system. Many hospitals and health centers in Argentina are named after him.
His brother, Arturo Carrillo, wrote a book about his life and achievements. Another author, Daniel Chiarenza, also published a biography in 2005. In 2005, the Argentine Government declared the year 2006 as the "Year of Honor to Ramón Carrillo."
Many people agree that Carrillo's most important gift was his ideas and beliefs. He said that health problems cannot be solved unless health policy is supported by social policy. He also believed that scientific discoveries in health are only useful if they reach everyone.
Recently, a new 2,000 peso banknote in Argentina has been designed with Ramón Carrillo and another important doctor, Cecilia Grierson, on it.
See also
In Spanish: Ramón Carrillo para niños
Images for kids
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Ramón Carrillo
