Professor Pedro Vilorio Barrera, pediatric surgeon, dies from Covid

May 28, 2021

Cuba mourns the death at age 85 of pediatric surgeon Pedro Vilorio Barrera due to complications associated with COVID-19. Vilorio was a major promoter of Pediatric Surgery in Cuba.

The community of pediatric surgeons in the country expressed their deep sorrow over the death of Vilorio Barrera, who at the time of his death on May 26, held the titles of Specialist of II Degree in Pediatric Surgery and I Degree in Pediatrics, as well as the categories of Full Professor and Consultant.

Born on August 3, 1935 in the former province of Las Villas, Vilorio moved to Havana in 1953 to study Medicine, and from the first year of his studies, he began working as a student at the General University Hospital Calixto García; from that date he became linked, from a political point of view, to the Popular Socialist Party.

During the third year of his studies, in 1956, the University was closed, following the beginning of the revolutionary struggle in the Sierra Maestra, and in 1957, due to family pressures, he traveled to the United States to continue his medical studies.

With the triumph of the Revolution, he returned immediately to Cuba, and joined the Rebel Army as a health worker; he then resumed his medical studies, which he alternated with his work in the Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR).

In 1961 he began his internship in Pediatrics at the Carlos J. Finlay Military Hospital in Havana; in 1962 he graduated as a doctor and went on to do his postgraduate studies in the Sierra Maestra Combat Forces, at the Caney de las Mercedes Military Hospital, which he inaugurated and became director of, as well as at the Camilo Cienfuegos School City hospital.

Dr. Vilorio Barrera in 1963 began his residency in Pediatrics at Carlos J. Finlay Hospital, with the rank of Medical Lieutenant of the FAR, and in 1964 was appointed Instructor of the Pediatrics Chair; he took on the teaching of Medicine students in their rotation through that specialty, from which he graduated in 1966; he subsequently served as head of the Respiratory and Miscellaneous service.

At the William Soler Pediatric Hospital in 1969 he completed his second residency; this time in Pediatric Surgery, which was being implemented for the first time.

In 1972 the eminent Cuban doctor inaugurated the Pediatric Surgery service at Carlos J. Finlay Military Hospital, where he was its chief for 10 years, with excellent evaluations as a manager.

During this period he carried out internationalist missions as a military surgeon in Angola and Ethiopia.

From 1982 he moved to the William Soler Pediatric Hospital and there assumed the teaching functions of the Pediatric Surgery service; he went into the FAR reserve with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, and at that institution Vilorio worked until his retirement in 2018, due to illness.

Pedro Vilorio Barrera was appointed head of the National Group of the specialty at the Ministry of Public Health since its creation in 1990, a position he held for 15 years; he was also a founding member and vice president of the Cuban Society of Pediatric Surgery, since its establishment in 1994.

Among other multiple contributions, the outstanding Cuban pediatric surgeon was founder in 1993 of the National Commission for Minimally Invasive Surgery of the Minsap and of that medical branch in Pediatrics in the country.

In addition, he was the architect of the introduction and development in the island nation of pediatric liver transplantation, airway surgery, among other advanced surgical programs and techniques.

Vilorio Barrera was the author of more than 50 works published in national and international journals and mentor and advisor of more than 40 specialty theses in Pediatric Surgery.

He was a member of the editorial board of the Cuban Journal of Pediatrics since 1990 and of the Ibero-American Society of Pediatric Surgery; Honorary Member of the Dominican Society of Pediatrics and the Venezuelan Society of Pediatric Surgery.

Among the multiple military and civil decorations received by Professor Vilorio Barrera, the following stand out: medals for V-X-XV-XX years in the FAR; Distinguished Services in the FAR; 50th Anniversary of the FAR; Medal of Internationalist Combatant of II Degree; Internationalist Worker; and the Piti Fajardo Medal for 25 years in Public Health, among others.