2023-07-09 22:43:59
In an apartment in Nueva Córdoba, Raquel Dodelson from Kremer receives La Voz with a mixture of humility and tenderness: “Do you really want to interview me?”
After greeting warmly, he sits in a chair, to the right of his daughter Irene, who will provide details of family life.
A painting brought from Madagascar – a gift from one of his daughters – stands out for its color in the dining room. A woman on her back is carrying a heavy bag, but her shoulders are relaxed. To her left, a girl seconded her. “It is my favorite painting,” says Raquel, 91 years old. It represents the past and the future. All the load is lightened with the children”.
Raquel has been nominated by a group of teachers and activists, who propose her within a shortlist for the name change of the new provincial Maternity. The project, which already had the support of a block of legislators and a councilor, tries to have the building renamed following a woman, including Dodelson de Kremer.
“I have experienced many things. So many that I don’t know where to start. I spent many years in the Children’s Hospital, in contact with patients. I liked that activity because it was very personal, ”she comments in a slow voice.
Pioneer in Medicine
When Raquel graduated as a doctor from the National University of Córdoba (UNC), she obtained the best average. That earned her a position at the Children’s Hospital, where she trained as a pediatrician. In 1976 she founded the Center for the Study of Congenital Metabolopathies (Cemeco), a pioneer in the study of metabolic genetic diseases.
“Boys who had genetic alterations were treated as mentally retarded. No one really knew what was wrong with them. Since she was very dedicated to her profession, she began to study these patients who were not all the same. She was trained in Biological Chemistry with the full professor Antonio Blanco, who helped her a lot, ”says her daughter Irene of her.
Raquel Dodelson de Kremer
What was it like to be a doctor in the 70s?
-Nobody took me the note. First because she was a woman, second because she was Jewish. But it didn’t worry me, I followed what I thought I had to do. Nobody gave me a hand economically but I continued. There were diagnoses that were made blindly and a light needed to be shed.
–How did you do when your three children were young?
I was the youngest of three siblings. My parents came from Europe as refugees from the war. We are of Jewish descent. They were saved from the Holocaust and came very poor, without knowing the language.
Her daughter contributes that she was the only one of her siblings who studied a university degree. And that her uncles were a fundamental pillar in the upbringing of the then little Liliana, Janus and Irene (the three children Raquel had with her husband Luis hers).
“My uncles lived near our house, in San Vicente, and they always took care of us. My dad was also by my mom’s side. He waited for her to leave the office and supported her in everything ”.
with the best finery
Almost in silence, Raquel identified through her work genetic alterations that decades ago no one imagined existed.
In 1993 he received the prestigious Reina Sofía award in Spain for research carried out in a community of Altas Cumbres. “It was the largest inbred cluster of Sandhoff disease, a pathology that affects the central nervous system,” described a newspaper at the time. It is a genetic deficiency of a protein that accumulates in the brain and other organs. There is no cure and progress is cruel”.
Dr. Raquel Dodelson de Kremer, scientist (La Voz archive)
How do you remember the moment of the award ceremony?
It was a very nice memory. They paid my ticket, they picked me up in a limousine at the hotel door and took me to the Palacio de la Zarzuela. When you see those people, the kings, you realize that they are human beings. They gave me a little check that was my support for many years.
Although it was a pioneer in identifying metabolic alterations, it had practically no financial return. She never agreed to open a private center. She loved her hospital.
Why did you become interested in metabolic diseases?
They were very interesting and no one talked regarding them. Things were not connecting. It was a gear that was not in anyone’s head.
See what others did not see
When he began to investigate the Comechingona community of Altas Cumbres, he found an inbred and isolated population. There were no roads and people lived cloistered in small towns.
At the Children’s Hospital, he began to receive patients who were born and grew well for the first few months, but later acquired a delay in maturation, deteriorated and died. She “she was encouraged to look at what others did not see. It is very difficult for doctors to connect with the pain of a family that loses its children and we have nothing to offer. Not even a diagnosis, ”says her daughter.
After studying international literature, he came across a precedent: Tay-Sachs disease, which occurs almost exclusively in Jews from northeastern Europe. “They were similar clinical pictures, with different genetic alterations. Like the population of Altas Cumbres, both shared inbreeding”.
Dr. Raquel Dodelson de Kremer, scientist (La Voz archive)
Through rudimentary diagnostic methods, he found the largest inbred population of Sandhoff disease, earning him the Queen Sofia award.
With prenatal tests, it was possible to know if these children would be born with the disease. “The woman already knew that she had a 50% chance that her children would be born that way. You informed them, which was not little, and you took away the blame”, says Irene.
what would change
In 2005, one of his works was published in the scientific journal Clinical Genetics. He discovered that some genetic alterations combined with folic acid deficiencies produced irreversible damage in babies. It was a highly preventative scientific contribution without sophisticated technology or expensive resources.
Once once more, his achievements occurred almost in silence. His discoveries were published in La Voz.
Dr. Raquel Dodelson de Kremer, scientist (La Voz archive)
Raquel blushes when asked what it would mean for her to be honored with the name of the new Maternity. She is not sure of the answer. She, on the other hand, does not hesitate when she mentions in this interview what she would change, at this point in the game.
“Anything, no matter how insignificant, depends on how we see things. The reality is in one. How do you digest it and if you think the world is ending. What needs to be changed is the observation of each one”.
The project to change the name of the Maternity was proposed to highlight the arduous task of women in medicine and seeks to be an incentive for future generations. In the case of Raquel, perhaps it is the icing on the cake that crowns this silent work.
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