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I was saddened to learn this morning that Dr. Ortiz, the founder of the rural health program in Costa Rica called Hospitals Without Walls, passed away on Sunday. His son and daughter are friends of mine, and we recently saw them and Dr. Ortiz while we were writing about his good works for The Mountain Howler, whose final issue came out on Monday. You can read the article at http://issuu.com/stephanz/docs/mountain_howler_8
The funeral will be at 3 pm at the cathedral in San Ramon.
Murió el padre intelecual de los Ebais
Pablo Fonseca Q. | pfonseca@nacion.com
Publicado: 2009/12/14 | 10:48 AMENVIAR
IMPRIMIRTAMAÑO
San José (Redacción). El médico Juan Guillermo Ortiz Guier, de 85
años, murió en San Ramón la madrugada del domingo.Ortiz fue creador, hace poco más de 50 años del llamado “Hospital sin
paredes”. Este programa es considerado el precursor de los actuales
Equipos Básicos de Atención Integral en Salud (Ebais).Este médico fue reconocido en múltiples ocasiones, especialmente por
su aporte en el campo de la medicina preventiva y comunitaria y la
salud pública de Costa Rica.Por ejemplo, en 1999 la Organización Mundial de la Salud le entregó el
premio Sasakawa Health en 1999.Exdirector médico del Hospital de San Ramón, Ortiz dio más impulso en
la década de los 70 a la idea de que los ciudadanos no buscaran al
hospital, sino que el centro hospitalario llegara a ellos.Los funerales de Ortiz están programados para el miércoles en San
Ramón a una hora por confirmar.This was written by Steve Duplantier, the editor of The Mountain Howler. I concur with Steve; this was the most elaborate and operatic funeral i have ever been to. There was not a seat in the house. It was packed.
Patricia Spinelli and I went yesterday to the funeral of Dr. Ortiz. I
have to say it was the most unusual and, dare I say it, wonderful
funeral I have ever been to. At 2:00, Dr. Ortiz’s body was in an open
casket at the end of the nave between the transepts of the church. A
singer/performer who looked like a Pre-Raphaelite vision of Sarah
Brightman began singing Sarah’s haunting “Time To Say Goodbye (Con te
partirò).” But she didn’t just sing it. It was an operatic
performance–she sang dramatically to the body of Dr. Ortiz, caressing
his face and emoting with grand gestures towards his coffin. Pure,
wonderful theater!She went on to sing a dozen more songs with the same tenderness and
feeling. Various people wandered up the aisle to pay their respects.
The old shoeless, homeless crone whom you see wandering around the
streets of San Ramón made her way up the aisle, stick in hand. She
went up to the coffin and touched Dr. Ortiz. Anna, his daughter, went
up to be with the old woman, probably not sure what she might do next.
She allowed the lady to stay, while the singer sang, and then escorted
her back to the front pew to sit with the family. It was an
extraordinary moment because it showed the common people’s affection
to the doctor and the respect that he and his family have for them.
In contrast, a few pews back on the side sat Dr. Abel Pacheco, former
president of Costa Rica. What a tribute that the ex-president of the
country and a barefoot schizophrenic attended the funeral of the great
doctor.I am happy that our tribute to Dr. Ortiz in the new Mountain Howler
was published when it was. It became his eulogy and an extended
obituary to a man who changed the world while working in the rural
health clinics of San Ramón.—
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