Asz SJ, Fernández SG, Cervantes CJ

Language: Spanish
References: 5
Page: 86-89
PDF size: 55.36 Kb.

ABSTRACT

Objective:To describe the medico-social and political events of a world crisis, in which a surgeon and a Mexican hospital participated.
Setting:Third level health care hospital.
Results:In the 16^th of January, 1979, the Shah of Iran left his country in exile due to the imminent revolution lived by his country. He was initially accepted in Egypt, than in Morocco, The Bahamas; finally, he was granted asylum in Mexico. During his stay in our country he was diagnosed with biliary tree obstruction and the corresponding surgery was planned at the ABC hospital. The government of the USA did not allow the operation to be performed in Mexico, based on the lack of computed axial tomography (CAT) at the time. The Shah was then admitted to a hospital in New York for the surgery. This caused the anger of radical Iranians, who besieged the American embassy in Teheran and took the 66 persons working there as hostages for 442 days. A political world crisis of immense consequences was produced. The Shah suffered several surgical complications that ended with his death in Egypt in 1980.
Conclusion:The brief medical history of a personage, like the Shah of Iran, demonstrates that the safety of patients must be above any other consideration.

REFERENCES

1. Broad W. No CAT Scans in Mexico for Shah? Science 1979; 206: 1283.

2. Bloom M. The Pahlavi problem: a superficial diagnosis brought the Shah into the United States. Science 1980; 207: 282-4, 286-7.

3. Arnold M (issue editor). “America in Captivity: Points of Decision in the Hostage Crisis”. The New York Times Magazine, special issue, May 1981.

4. Pierre Salinger. America Held Hostage: The Secret Negotiations. Doubleday & Company Inc., New York, 1981.

5. Shawcross W. The Shah’s Last Ride. Simon and Schuster, New York, 1988.