Cuban cardiology is mourning the loss on January 17 of Dr. Julio Noel González Jiménez, who in 1985 performed the first heart transplant procedure in Cuba and Latin America.
Born in the municipality of Santo Domingo, in the central province of Villa Clara, González graduated as a doctor in 1954. He joined the July 26th Movement led by Fidel and the Federation of University Student’s March 13th Revolutionary Directorate, in the struggle against the Batista dictatorship.
After the triumph of the Revolution, González participated in the battle of Playa Girón working as a surgeon, and also held various positions in Havana, such as director of the Comandante Manuel Fajardo Hospital where he organized the Cardiovascular Surgery department. He was also founder and director of this specialty service at the Institute of Cardiology and Cardiovascular Surgery, later at the Luis Díaz Soto Military Hospital, and subsequently at the Hermanos Ameijeiras Clinical Surgery Hospital since its inauguration in 1983.
Professor González made decisive contributions to the development of the country’s nationwide network of cardiology facilities.
Noel González DSc, Professor and Consultant Professor at the University of Medical Sciences in Havana, participated in numerous national and international events of his specialty, was the author of multiple scientific articles published in Cuban and international journals, and was made an honorary member of various scientific societies and academies of different countries.
He received countless distinctions in recognition of his qualities as a teacher, researcher and militant revolutionary, including Honorary Member of the Dominican Society of Cardiology and of the New York Academy of Sciences. The outstanding doctor also served as President of the Science Ethics Committee and the Cuban National Bioethics Committee, affiliated with the Cuban Academy of Sciences, and was awarded an honorary membership of the Cuban Society of the History of Medicine.
On December 9, 1985, the eminent Cuban scientist performed the first heart transplant in the country and the region, on 31 year old laborer Jorge Hernández Ocaña, a crowning achievement which has since seen 140 Cubans benefit from this surgical procedure.
