Sandra Maribel Matamoros Barrera, doctor of the UMAA No. 198, of the Mexican Institute of Social Security (IMSS), state of Mexico, fought once morest two diseases that left her practically incapacitated for almost two years, however, with great patience and care she managed to come out ahead of the conditions that undermined her health: ovarian cancer and gastric hypersecretion.
Both conditions made her lose 12 kilograms of her body weight, lose her hair, eyebrows, eyelashes, and suffer fragility of her fingernails, due to clinical treatment and chemotherapy.
At present, still in the process of improvement without ceasing to attend to his health, he restarted his medical activity at the Medical Outpatient Care Unit (UMAA) No. 198, in Coacalco, where he has worked for 12 years, out of the 23 that he has been in the Institute specializing in Family Medicine.
Dr. Matamoros Barrera has shown her enormous desire to live, as well as her firm professional commitment, since this doctor has not cared regarding anything in order to move forward, and nothing has been an obstacle to continue with her work: neither the lack of hair, which he covered with a hat, nor the fall of his eyebrows, which he replaced with a tattoo, and having had to resort to the use of false ones, even the fact that one season he had to use a hidden urinary bag.
For a few weeks she has been seen active once more in her office where she attends to more than 20 patients during her working day, providing them with responsible care.
With her life example, Dr. Sandra Maribel Matamoros, has earned the respect and esteem of her colleagues at UMAA No. 198 and the affection of her patients who shower her with small gifts, because there is no day who does not fill her with some small detail such as an apple, a bottle of water, a sandwich, the embroidered napkin or words of gratitude from the beneficiaries whom she cares for with total conviction.
HE TAKES CARE OF THEM, EVEN IN ILLNESS
“When we are sick, at least for me, my obstacle is not coming to work, especially when chemotherapy limits me; or gastric surgery prevents me from carrying on my day normally. It depressed me to be in the hospital, or at home, I already wanted to come to work. I was not interested in criticism, no circumstance was an impediment to return to what I am passionate regarding: family medicine, ”he said.
The woman comes from a comprehensive, “loving and supportive” family, as she herself explains, who transmitted her passion for medicine and pedagogy from a young age, both her father, Dr. José Luis Matamoros Zenteno, teacher trainer for residents of the IMSS for more than 20 years, like her mother, a teacher by profession like her three younger sisters, defines what her experience in her specialty has been like in her 23 years of service at the Institute.
“Everything I am is thanks to the Institute. I was born in the IMSS, I was educated in the IMSS, I did my specialty in the IMSS. I love Family Medicine, because we are the first contact doctor; we have to give the patient safety. We are responsible for the quality of life that the patient will have later and we are the ones who make the timely detection of any of the diseases they have ”, he commented.
More than two years have passed, when they detected ovarian cancer and in 2021 gastric hypersecretion.
Currently, the doctor Sandra Maribel Matamoros continues her clinical recovery treatments, “I feel good, happy, eager to be working, despite the fact that I am still undergoing treatment.”
With a weight loss of 12 kilos, -she weighed 64, and is at 52 kilos-, the doctor feels happy because her hair has grown, she no longer has to wear the surgical uniform, the catheter has already been removed, and she has to use a tube, and another thing that makes her very happy is that she can finally chew her food, which she mightn’t before.
