Giampiero Giron, an anesthetist still practicing at 85. Passionate and disciplined.

85 years old, a life spent in hospital wards. Today, he runs the Villa Salus clinic, performing 3000 procedures a year, most of which he assists at the patients' request. He has no intention of retiring. Because, he says, retirement is a civil death.

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anesthetist at 85 years old

Chloroform, trilene, curare, barbiturates. Before that, ethyl alcohol. And even before that, in the 16th century, it is said that patients were put to sleep with fists. Today, powerful intravenous anesthetics, such as fentanyl, are used, with side effects that, if unmanaged, can be lethal. For everything else you need to know about anesthetics, contact Giampiero Giron, 85, has spent his life working as an anesthetist and resuscitator., university professor and health director, still active.
With no intention of stopping.

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ANESTHETICIAN AT 85

For him, medical director of Villa Salus Hospital in Mestre, years are just conventional numbers, and every day he dons his scrubs and enters the operating room. The facility performs approximately 3000 procedures a year, and patients themselves often request Dr. Giron's presence in the operating room, given his experience and high level of professionalism. This is the fruit of years of success and medical and scientific rigor, which have seen him perform procedures that have shaped the history of medicine in Italy. Like the first heart transplant in Italy, in 1985. As chief anesthetist, Giron put Ilario Lazzari to sleep, the first patient on the peninsula to receive a heart from a donor. Or when he founded the Institute of Anesthesia and Resuscitation at the University of Padua.

Age doesn't scare him at all; for him, it's synonymous with experience. Indeed, those who still have functioning eyes, hands, and minds, in his view, have a duty to continue their profession and help many patients undergo any type of surgery, from the mildest to the most invasive, without trauma or danger. Self-confident, but with a tremendous sense of duty, which has accompanied him since 1963, when he began working in the wards of Padua Hospital, after graduating with distinction in 1961. Anesthetists are a rare breed, especially those like Dr. Giron, who have made their profession a true mission, a vocation.

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GIAMPIERO GIRON ANESTHETICIAN

In Italy, unfortunately, the shortage of anesthetists and resuscitators is a well-known fact, repeatedly denounced. Giron has a theory, which has much to do with the stress of a life on which other lives depend. One mistake, even a trivial one, and a patient might never wake up or remain in a vegetative state for the rest of their lives. This is why, according to Giron, many give up early and turn to other medical careers. With fewer risks, less responsibility. In his 56-year career, Giampiero Giron has never received a warning for incompetence or any disciplinary proceedings.Many operations have been brilliantly successful, only a few with minor complications, normal intensive care issues.

The words that define Giron are certainly rigor, dedication, and unwavering obedience. To the Hippocratic Oath, and certainly also to his father, who wanted him to be a doctor. Otherwise, who knows, Professor Giron might have moved elsewhere from the streets of Venice where he was born and raised, to study physics or astronomy.

(Featured image from ilgazzettino.it// Photo credits Il Gazzettino)

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