IN MEMORIAM
ANÍSIO COSTA TOLEDO
September 12th, 1914 to March 4th, 2000.
Anoi Castro Cordeiro and Alberto R. Ferraz
CORDEIRO A C et al. - Anísio Costa Toledo. Rev. Hosp. Clín. Fac. Med. S. Paulo 55(2):45-46,2000.
On the fourth of March, Anísio Costa Toledo left us: a physician, a gentleman, a scholar who helped imprint valuable human qualities in the surgeons graduating from our medical school.
Son of Justice Mucio F. Toledo and Mrs Zilda C. Toledo, he was born in Botucatu, in the State of São Paulo, on September 12, 1914 to a family that also gave birth to Queen Sylvia of Sweden, his cousin.
He started his intellectual education within his family, at public schools in the Botucatu region, and at the Ginasio São Bento in the Capital. Still as a very young man, he was part of the troops in the 1932 revolution. He studied medicine, and in 1940, he graduated in Medicine from the Faculty of Medicine, University of São Paulo, the same school where he later became a professor.
Always an attentive and dedicated person, he was beloved by his patients both because of his competence and his naturally empathic posture. An accomplished surgeon, he developed skilled manual ability and strict precision of surgical gestures. His outstanding courtesy, kind civility and captivating grace characterized the treatment he used to give, not only to his patients, but to everyone near him superiors, peers, subordinates, whoever without distinction.
As a Professor, he taught medical and nursing students and young surgeons at this school and at others as well. Initially he carried out these activities in the Discipline of Surgical Technique at our school and, in sequence, at the Surgical Clinic Wards, progressing to positions as Assistant Professor, Adjunct Professor, Full Professor and Chairman of Head and Neck Surgery. Finally, he was revered as a Professor Emeritus of the Board of the Medical School.
In addition to being a renowned surgeon and professor, he was a representative elected by his colleagues to several institutions, including: the Regional Medical Council of the State, the American College of Surgeons, the Brazilian College of Surgeons and the São Paulo Medical Association where he was President of the Department of Surgery.
His excellent skills as a surgeon allowed him to perform research in many fields. During a test that was part of preparation for a university career, he demonstrated a rare proficiency in the surgical operation that had been allotted to him the sectioning of the sensitive root of the trigeminus nerve. But his range of interest was large. In preparation to become a full professor, he prepared a thesis on the surgical anatomy of the liver.
Undoubtedly, he was a fine general surgeon, but it was in the realm of delicate and difficult operations on the cervicofacial segment that, over many years, Professor Toledo most showed his mastery.
After having been a trainee at renowned surgical units in the United States, he started and managed the first University Service on Head and Neck Surgery in Brazil. Here he not only inaugurated such an entity in the Hospital das Clínicas, but also he became one of the three main founders of the Brazilian Society of Head and Neck Surgeons, an entity that congregates the practitioners of this specialty in our country and which has qualified specialists through nationwide exams every two years since 1967. At the Brazilian Society of Head and Neck Surgeons (which awards a prize named after him), Anisio Toledo held offices and was elected President in 1977. It is timely to recall that only in 1950 Hayes Martin inaugurated, at the New York Memorial Hospital, the first head and neck surgery unit.
The introduction into Brazil in 1957 of such a new a discipline required sound insight from its implementer, special effort and a refined ability to cut sharp corners both on dealing with his own peers and in his relationship with colleagues in other areas. Professor Anísio Toledo set out to successfully accomplish that task in the University of São Paulo. In 1976 he created the Residence on Head and Neck Surgery in the Hospital das Clínicas, which has trained about 70 specialists so far, and has cooperated in an important way to the graduation of innumerable general surgeons.
Anísio Toledo's contribution to the teaching of surgery here, however, was not restricted to either the creation of a discipline or to the mere technical aspect of his profession, but it was also extended to a wider field: he provided his students for the difficult management of human interrelations. He used to teach chiefly through his personal example; and imitation, we know, is perhaps the most important instrument in the learning process, the only efficient means to change as it has, indeed, changed the old classic surgeon's personality.
The progress experienced by medicine has transformed that feared personality so often associated with the tough surgeon in the old days from the bad mood and sometimes, rudeness, to the clean personality of the physician with a cordial, serene character and, above all, with an engagement in helping. That is the model of surgeon being established in our hospital. To this transformation of mentality and posture of the practitioner, Anísio's presence among us has contributed greatly. It is necessary to have masters who, because they can control themselves by reason of the purity of their education, can give testimony to the feasibility of the association between the attributes of a good surgeon and those of a well-developed human being. Accordingly, let us recall what Oscar Guillamondegui, a former Chief of the Head and Neck Surgery Unit at the M. D. Anderson Hospital in Houston said, "We must remember that a good surgeon can only evolve from a sound physician, and a good physician develops only from a morally and spiritually healthy man or woman."
It is in this context that Anísio Toledo is outstanding; he was an educator and a model of conduct, not only for his students but also for his peers.
We will all miss him. But he planted, surely in good ground, the seeds of the ideal medical doctor. Many of them have bloomed. Many others will certainly follow the indicated path.
From the Discipline of Head and Neck Surgery, Hospital das Clínicas, Faculty of Medicine, University of São Paulo.
Publication Dates
-
Publication in this collection
24 Aug 2000 -
Date of issue
Apr 2000
