63 years of service in medicine
“There are many people who think that: if you work hard, it kind of wears you out, and I think the opposite, that it keeps you alive”Thus, without any secrecy, Dr. Luis Alberto Menéndez Ordóñez gives us his secret for longevity.
On March 9, he turned eighty-six years old and is still in service, attending two or three times a week, in the mornings, from his office in the heart of Chapinero. His function in life was, is and will be to be a doctor.
Menéndez was born in Bucaramanga in 1936 and, although it may seem like a cliché, since he was a child he dreamed of practicing medicine because he saw the family doctor caring for his relatives with love and without greed.
His maternal great-grandfather and his paternal grandfather were doctors and he, following the family tradition, came to Bogotá at the age of seventeen to study his career, he did so at the National University of Colombia, whose Faculty of Medicine turns 155 in 2022, training some of the best doctors in the country.
It was not an easy task, because his father, who supported his entire family, died that same year and he had to overcome all kinds of unforeseen events to carry out his goal. He did it with height, since he was always among the top five in the course, which guaranteed him to graduate in 1959 with a scholarship.
He began working at La Hortúa Hospital, then continued at Santa Clara, which was founded by President Eduardo Santos, which was originally a tuberculosis sanatorium. He stayed there for 27 years and made the whole line being: intern, head of interns, instructor and later, director of the children’s sanatorium.
Later he worked at the Caja Agraria -now Banco Agrario- and became recognized as head of the medical service, he worked there for 20 years and retired in the late 1990s. Dr. Menéndez was also a professor for 12 years at the Javeriana University and 8 at the Juan N. Corpas University Foundation.
He always attended the office in the followingnoons, following working in hospitals in the morning. Jesus Christ the Worker did it first, in the Olaya neighborhood, and also a little further south, in Santa Lucía. That is why he had so many clients and was able to see entire generations of people who arrived as babies and who, even today, as grandparents, continue to come to his office as faithful patients.
A witness to the evolution of medicine in Colombia
Dr. Menéndez specialized as a pulmonologist, working with an emphasis on the respiratory tract from 1959 to 1980.
He faced diseases dating back to the medical history books such as leprosy, tuberculosis, polio and measles.
Before, doctors did not have all the state-of-the-art diagnostic tools that there are now, according to him, in his first years of practice: “The CT did not exist, the MRI did not exist either, along with some laboratory tests” . Medical praxis was done with limited resources and that is why personalized attention was key, and still is, according to him.
“One was interested in taking good care of a patient, examining him calmly, if it was necessary to spend half an hour on him, because if he was happy he would come back, then he would make a clientele and at the same time help,” he says.
Medicine as a social function
In his years of consultation in the south of Bogotá, the doctor treated very poor people.
His vision of the social reality in Colombia allowed him to develop a sense of gratitude towards all the low-income patients he attended, which also allowed him to knock from his mind many prejudices related to insecurity or the underworld.
He saw and helped his clients whether or not they had money, he recalls that none of the families he saw left him owing anything, because, even if they did not have money, they repaid his work with some detail.
“Medicine has a social function. It’s not like now, to be filled with money in an instant; and so many doctors thought because all the parishes had a parish doctor and there were doctors who dedicated their lives exclusively to that, and friends that I knew. There are professions that cannot be thought of as a business but as a service, such as the health professions. Of course, one studies a profession to make a living from it, but not to exploit people either.”
For the doctor, the key has always been to help and save lives over money, that and getting to know his patients, because, according to him, a good doctor, when he has the opportunity, does not attend once morest the clock, he does so with patience and dedication.
World Health Day 2022, an invitation to protect health
Today, April 7, the World Health Organization celebrates this date with the motto: “Our planet, our health”, in order to urge everyone to share their stories regarding care measures. What better way to do it than with a doctor who at 86 years old is still practicing medicine! ….
When Dr. Menéndez turned 80, he had heart complications: he had three heart attacks in a row and had to undergo surgery at the Fundación Cardio Infantil de Bogotá. According to him, the doctors who treated him were surprised by his resistance and state of health.
What are your tips to protect health like a wise man?:
• No Smoking: “I have never smoked, my dad used to do it a lot, smoking didn’t bother me. Years ago there was not so much campaign once morest cigarettes: one went to the cinema and that raised the smoke and the film artists went out smoking a lot”.
• Do not drink alcoholic beverages in excess: “I wasn’t drunk either, that is, I like a few drinks socially, but since I saw so many people, friends, and fellow alcoholics, then I never had vices.”
• Work hard: “I always worked long and hard: I got up at 6 in the morning, entered the hospital at 7 and from there until 8 at night. I took the holidays in December, working hard does not wear out the body.
• Eat well: “As a young person you don’t worry, that’s why you have to try to eat well and entertain your mind: work is something that keeps people well and it’s not something that makes them sick, as long as one dedicates oneself to a profession that want”.
• Study: “It is not that they are all doctors, but it is important that they prepare themselves, that they study technical professions because the country needs technicians, the classic professions: medicine, dentistry, law are already full, there are plenty of professionals, on the other hand it is difficult to find technicians in different subjects”.
• Caring for the environment: “I am very concerned regarding climate change: the amount of CO2 emissions that are affecting the atmosphere. You have to help as much as you can, you have to recycle, teach how to plant trees, for example”.
• Be responsible: “If you have a home, be responsible, that the wife and children are abandoned and not a penny is lost, as one sees it every day, it is not like that, because those children are raised in bad conditions, they have more difficulties in relation to the others. You have to accept the consequences of your actions.”
According to him, the vices of youth are checks that are cashed in maturity, if healthy habits are followed, life is prolonged and one has a dignified old age, without complications or illnesses that torment the end of days.
the meaning of living
In the words of Dr. Luis Alberto Menéndez Ordóñez, life is an opportunity to manage oneself well, to do good, to help others and to teach what one knows, because “He who does not know cannot do it, on the other hand, he who he knows he has to set an example and share what he has learned”.
After all his years of service he doesn’t stop, he wants to die exercising, but before that happens he will continue to give us all his wisdom, because that is what he is, the next thing to an expert: a sage.
“Honestly, I love the profession very much and at 86 years of age I continue to practice it because I feel that it is the moment when one knows the most. There are things that do not replace experience, this is not improvised and people appreciate that: doing things with love”.
*In partnership with: Cruz Verde.