Sara Marta Perelló Perelló

Dr. Sara Marta Perelló Perelló, who dedicated herself until the last days of her life to the practice of her profession, to the teaching of Medical Sciences and to the service of her Country, was among the three thousand doctors who, at the triumph of the Revolution, decided to continue working alongside the Cuban people and integrated the first Cuban internationalist medical mission in Algeria, will always be an example of dedication and commitment to the noblest of professions. She will always be among those who look at which side duty is on and not which side one lives better, as our Apostle, José Martí, would say.

Her childhood and youth were spent in the bosom of a family of limited resources, which forced her to frequent changes of residence. She was born in the city of Cárdenas, in Matanzas.

She completed the first three years of Primary Education at the "Consuelo Serra" school in the City of Havana, and finished this level at a public school in her native city, where she also completed secondary studies through ninth grade.

She returned to Havana and enrolled at Institute No. 1 of Secondary Education, today the pre-university "José Martí", where she graduated as Bachelor of Arts and Sciences. A year later, she graduated as a Professor of Drawing and Painting from the San Alejandro Higher School of Fine Arts.

She enrolled in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Havana in 1943, with free tuition obtained through academic record; she graduated on November 30, 1953.

Work placement "was not easy for me," she noted in her autobiography. She worked from 1954 to 1960 as an honorary doctor first and observer later at the Municipal Children's Hospital, today "Pedro Borrás", initially without earning a salary.

In 1955, she was appointed Assistant Home Doctor at the Los Pinos First Aid Station, where she worked in the afternoons, while in the mornings she worked at the Children's Hospital. She worked at the Cangrejeras Anti-Tuberculosis Colony as support, at the request of Dr. Pedro Baeza Vega; in turn, she was contracted at the Legal Charitable Center for Workers.

At the triumph of the Revolution, she began working in 1960 at the Arturo Aballí Children's Hospital, as an internal and resident doctor, until 1962, the year she took a position at the "William Soler" Children's Hospital as an Auxiliary Specialist doctor.

Between 1967 and 1974 she served as Auxiliary Specialist in Allergies at "Calixto García" Hospital. She transferred to the Central Military Hospital "Dr. Luis Díaz Soto" where she organized the Allergy Service. In this center she received the military rank of medical lieutenant of the Revolutionary Armed Forces.

In 1974 and until 1984, she worked at the Provincial Hygiene Center. There she developed studies on occupational diseases of allergic etiology. In this latter year and until 1987 she returned to work at the "William Soler" Children's Hospital. She began as a professor of the subject Society and Health at the Faculty of Medical Sciences Dr. Enrique Cabrera in 1987, until her retirement in 2008, when she was already 88 years old.

She participated in the First Internationalist Medical Mission, presided over by Commander Dr. José Ramón Machado Ventura, Minister of Public Health at that time. She participated in the organization of the Union of Algerian Women and in the dispensary for orphans of war in the city of Sidi-Bel-Abbes where it was located.

She completed several postgraduate courses in the specialties of Pediatrics, Allergies, Philosophy, Occupational Health, Pedagogy and Computing.

She had extensive teaching activity in the centers where she worked as a doctor, among which the following stand out:

Allergy Postgraduate Professor at "General Calixto García" Hospital

Environmental Hygiene Professor at the "Mariana Grajales" School of Nurses at "Luis Díaz Soto" Military Hospital

Undergraduate and Postgraduate Hygiene and Epidemiology Professor at the Clinical Surgical Hospital of October 10th.

Professor at the Faculty of Medical Sciences "Dr. Enrique Cabrera" in the subject Society and Health and Disaster Medicine from when these were introduced in the new medical degree curriculum until 2008, the year she could not continue teaching for health reasons.

She was a member of the Cuban Society of Allergies.

For all this work, for her outstanding merits during more than 50 years in the health sector, medical teaching and research, it was decided to dedicate the 2010 Scientific Convention of the Faculty of Medical Sciences Dr. Enrique Cabrera to Dr. Sara Marta Perelló Perelló.