Emilio Martínez Martínez

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Distinguished Cuban health official and professor, clinical physician and founder of the specialty of throat, nose and ears, with a chair at the School of Medicine of the University of La Habana and tenacious fighter against cancer. In all these activities he achieved very meritorious accomplishments and recognition for his work.

Born in La Habana, of Spanish parents, at the age of 5, he moved to the United States with his family.

The war for independence had already begun a year earlier and the existing political concerns led to a movement of emigrants to other countries.

During the years of armed struggle in Cuba, the Martínez Martínez family remained in North American territory, so the young Emilio's entire primary education was carried out in the public schools of Baltimore, between 1870 and 1875, and his secondary education at Grammar Scholl, studies which he had to interrupt due to his father's death, when the family again moved to the Homeland.

In Cuba he graduated as a Bachelor of Arts in 1882 with outstanding grades. That same year he enrolled in the School of Medicine. There were many economic difficulties for the family, which led the young student to decide to work to pay for his studies; thus he occupied a position in the laboratory of the San Francisco de Sales school, where he had completed his bachelor's degree.

He carried out his practical medical studies at the Hospital Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes, which he always remembered gratefully for his professors, of whom he left written praise for their dedication and scientific level.

He completed his degree in Medicine and Surgery in 1887. His thesis was titled "Prophylaxis of Yellow Fever" with which he obtained the Extraordinary Prize and in 1889 the degree of Doctor with the thesis "Severe Primitive Jaundice. Its Curability," also with the Extraordinary Prize in the degree.

From his years as a medical student he was passionate about discovering the unknowns that existed in the field of medical sciences. A great observer and profound analyst, he left impressive accounts of what he saw and experienced in the hospitals where he did his teaching practice.

Upon completing his degree, he worked with doctor George Sternberg, who was in Cuba, with whom he conducted studies on the possible etiological agent of yellow fever. Upon returning to the United States, he requested that Emilio Martínez's collaboration continue as a laboratory assistant, which he continued at John Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore.

The time spent in foreign lands was used by Lic. Martínez to write his doctoral thesis.

Along with all these activities, he met professor Mac Kenzie at the hospital itself, an internationally famous laryngologist who awakened in him an interest in that specialty to which he dedicated most of his professional life and in which he made contributions to national medicine (he was the one who introduced laryngeal intubation in Cuba for the treatment of diphtheria, in the early years of this century); he was also the first Cuban to observe a case of diphtheria treated and cured with Behring serum.

His scientific interests led him to move to different cities in other latitudes always seeking what was new for the benefit of the sick. Thus, in London, England, at the private clinic of doctor Saint Clair Thomson, he became familiar with a new technique applied by that doctor in the treatment of vocal cord cancer by thyrotomy.

In Berlin, Germany, the renowned professor Gerick pioneered laryngectomy and doctor Martínez moved to that city where he had referred a Cuban patient to be treated using the new technique, which he himself applied.

In Cuba, laryngeal removal was used with general anesthesia, with a high mortality rate due to bronchoaspiration. In Madrid, Spain, doctor Tapia, a famous laryngologist, introduced a new method with the application of local anesthesia, with highly satisfactory results, and doctor Martínez also had the priority of knowing and applying the new method in the country.

Already at the middle of his fruitful life, he dedicated himself passionately to the fight against cancer. From previous years he had been working to alleviate the terrible symptoms that this disease produces. He belonged to the group of founders of the League Against Cancer in Cuba, where he was one of the most active and enthusiastic members in all the works developed by that organization.

In 1929 he created the Cancer Institute, which through his tenacious dedication achieved progressive improvements in the care of admitted patients, using the latest treatments being applied in the world: he achieved better material conditions by expanding in many cases and building, in others, new buildings that provide better institutional facilities for those afflicted with this disease.

To disseminate new discoveries and provide scientific information to all physicians, he founded and directed the Bulletin of the League Against Cancer in 1926, a publication of sufficient merit to be considered a support of great value for the advancement of specialists dedicated to this disease.

His interest in teaching is evident from his earliest youth. Let us remember that at the beginning of his career he decides to work to help himself economically and the activity chosen is teaching.

During undergraduate studies, in the first 4 years he was a student assistant and from that position his support to his fellow students was valuable, as he transmitted the lessons and practical knowledge that his professors imparted to him. He even studied shorthand to be able more easily and with greater accuracy to transcribe the lessons that were being offered to them.

In 1900, by competitive examination, he obtained the auxiliary chair of Microscopy and Clinical Chemistry and Medical Pathology; thus he achieved a lifelong goal, entering the teaching body of the School of Medicine.

At the beginning of his classes in the laboratory he asked to improve the conditions of the facility and achieved, first, to physically relocate the laboratory on the first floor of Hospital Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes with greater space and better patient access and, second, to prepare together with doctor Leonel Plasencia Montes, the Practical Manual of Microscopy and Chemistry, to which they dedicated long months of work and whose final version was adopted as the official textbook for the chair from 1907 onward.

He was not only concerned with the training of future physicians, but also of their indispensable auxiliaries, nurses; he actively helped in the organization and drafting of the regulations of the Schools of Nursing in 1901, in addition to being an advisor and professor to them for a long time.

By Decree Number 601 of the Provisional Governor, dated May 23, 1907, Martínez was appointed, through competitive examinations, Full Professor of the chair of diseases of the larynx, ears and nasal cavities of the School of Medicine.

Due to the prestige achieved in long years of tireless work, he occupied the highest position of the school, being appointed Dean in January 1923.

Doctor Emilio Martínez had the fortune of delving into the investigation of the etiology and development of diseases considered scourges of our island and of the world, from as early a period as his professional undergraduate studies.

Already graduated in 1891, he obtained by competitive examination a position as Municipal Physician: he was assigned to different neighborhoods of the capital. During the years he held this position, he was able to observe the hygienic conditions of the city and how the state of poverty of the population with its consequences of malnutrition and overcrowding in unhealthy areas were factors conducive to the spread of transmissible diseases.

Against this reality he fought and tried from a very limited position to sensitize the health authorities to improve the deteriorated conditions of the environment, worsened in subsequent years by independence struggles and the colonial government's neglect, which caused his love for the Homeland to lead him to collaborate in favor of independence, from his position as interim Inspector of the "Marine Hospital Service" of the port of La Habana, between 1895 and 1897.

This service was created by the North American government to care for sick sailors and monitor the sanitary conditions and disease outbreaks in different strategic countries.

From that position doctor Martínez collaborated with the revolutionaries since his position gave him free access to ships anchored at the Havana docks, a condition he took advantage of to serve as a courier for the Revolutionary Junta of New York by providing necessary information through letters and documents that entered and left the country. For this reason he emigrated again with his family to the United States, until the final departure of the Spanish from Cuba.

Given his interest in hygiene issues, in 1901 the Intervention Government designated him to travel to Washington to study Sanitary Medicine, which served him in the following years to honorably occupy the most important positions within the sanitary direction of the country.

In 1905, he was appointed member of the Central Board of Beneficence of Cuba. For many years his clinical and epidemiological knowledge were of invaluable value as a member of the Commission on Infectious Diseases: he wrote numerous works on these diseases in various scientific publications such as the Journal of Tropical Medicine created by the great health official, glory of Cuba, doctor Juan Guiteras Gener.

In 1921, doctor Guiteras appointed Emilio Martínez Director of Health of the Republic of Cuba and from that position he displayed tireless activity to try to improve the sanitary conditions of the country. That year outbreaks of smallpox occurred in different areas of the island, mainly in the eastern part.

The newly appointed Director of Health personally organized the campaign against the epidemic in Victoria de las Tunas, Manzanillo, Camagüey and Viñales, the latter locality located in the province of Pinar del Río.

Another epidemic threatened La Habana, this time it was bubonic plague and doctor Martínez ordered drastic measures to combat it, such as the decision to flood several shops in Old Havana, where hundreds of rats had been detected; despite the critical forces issued against that measure and the opposition of the merchants in the affected area, he achieved the intended objective, preventing the spread of the disease.

In 1936 he occupied the highest position within the Cuban sanitary organization, that of Secretary of Health and Beneficence, a position in which he achieved very positive results despite the few months he served. Many were the actions he carried out, but we highlight the resolution he issued by ordering that: the epidemic fund, which was financed by fines for sanitary violations, be placed under the supervision of the National Board of Health; these funds acquired an extraordinary reserve volume after this measure was applied.

As autonomous agencies began to be created within the sanitary organization, he opposed this measure and remained firm in his concept that all departments and organizations related to public health should be maintained as a unit under a single command.

That is why when the creation of the National Tuberculosis Council as an autonomous agency was proposed, he did not endorse as Secretary of Health and Beneficence that decree and instead the then secretary of government signed it. For this reason he resigned from his position as the highest director of Cuban health.

This entire life of work and study received multiple honors and recognition from national and foreign societies.

In 1889, he was admitted as a full member of the Society of Clinical Studies of La Habana; founding member of the Society of Tropical Medicine, 1908; President of the II National Medical Congress in 1911 and President of Honor of the III National Medical Congress, 1917; he officially represented Cuban health at the International Congress of OTL, held in Paris in 1922; academic member of the Academy of Medical, Physical and Natural Sciences of La Habana, 1923; decorated with the order Honor and Merit of the Red Cross of Cuba and order of the Legion of Honor of France, both in 1936; President of the oncology section at the VII Pan-American Medical Congress held in La Habana, 1937 and in 1946, decorated with the Finlay Order, the highest distinction awarded by Cuban health.

Until very few days before his death, December 8, 1948, he was attending his beloved "Cancer Institute."

Source: Cuban Journal of Public Health, 1998