{"id":3177,"date":"2011-09-17T13:12:03","date_gmt":"2011-09-17T16:12:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.recoletacemetery.com\/?p=3177"},"modified":"2025-06-23T11:27:19","modified_gmt":"2025-06-23T09:27:19","slug":"434-burgos-y-colon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/recoletacemetery.com\/?p=3177","title":{"rendered":"435. burgos y col\u00f3n"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Recoleta<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

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Although plain & simple by Recoleta standards, this family vault contains two of the greatest surgeons in Argentine history. Enrique Finochietto<\/strong> entered medical school in Buenos Aires at the age of 16 & earned his degree with honors in 1904. After spending some time as a surgical intern specializing in skin & venereal disease, Enrique took his first trip to Europe to learn new techniques, brought them back to Argentina & was named head of surgery at Hospital Rawson. He would not sit still for long.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Enrique returned to Europe during World War I, meeting Marcelo T. de Alvear<\/a> in Paris, where they jointly set up a hospital for the wounded. The French were so grateful that they awarded Enrique the Legion of Honor<\/strong> medal. Returning to Buenos Aires, the Finochietto brothers opened the new, cutting-edge surgical wing of the Hospital Rawson & Enrique began inventing surgical instruments… among them the frontolux<\/strong>, inspired by a miner’s head gear. After a long history of medical accomplishments, Enrique succumbed to syphilis in 1948.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"Recoleta<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

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Enrique’s younger brother, Ricardo<\/strong>, followed in his footsteps but was more geared toward teaching than inventions. He traveled to the United States in the 1930’s & implented the system of residency in Argentina by establishing a surgical school specifically for recent graduates to improve their technique.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1950 while head of the Polyclinic in Avellaneda, Ricardo was designated as Eva Per\u00f3n’s head physician<\/strong>. With an advanced case of uterine cancer, he could do little to ease Evita’s pain & was present when U.S. surgeon George Pack<\/strong> performed a hysterectomy. In the 1952 photo below, Ricardo appears on the far right. After the Revoluci\u00f3n Libertadora<\/em> which ousted Per\u00f3n, Ricardo’s ties with the previous administration prevented him from working in the public sphere. He passed away in 1962.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"Recoleta<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

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\"Recoleta<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

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What remains unclear is why Enrique & Ricardo Finochietto are in this particular family vault. Since the mausoleum is not in their name, perhaps it belongs to a family member by marriage. Stay tuned for updates!<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"Recoleta<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

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Update (21 Oct 2011):<\/strong>  The third Finochietto brother, Miguel \u00c1ngel<\/strong>, was also a surgeon & worked alongside Enrique at the Hospital Rawson. He, too, is buried in Recoleta Cemetery but in a different vault… the exact location of which is still unknown. While searching through my thousands of Recoleta Cemetery photos, I stumbled across the following plaque for Miguel \u00c1ngel (photo from 2007):<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"Recoleta<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

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Despite three attempts, I haven’t been able to find this plaque again in the cemetery. Today, I talked with one of the caretakers in the area where he should be buried (judging from the photos I took before & after) & most likely the vault for Miguel \u00c1ngel was recently sold. Still have to confirm with Administraci\u00f3n<\/em>, but it seems likely that he has moved to another cemetery.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Photo of Miguel \u00c1ngel Finochietto used with permission of Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina, Biblioteca Central, Colecci\u00f3n Dr. H. C\u00e9sar Gotta<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Although plain & simple by Recoleta standards, this family vault contains two of the greatest surgeons in Argentine history. Enrique Finochietto entered medical school in…<\/p>\n

Continue reading435. burgos y col\u00f3n<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-science","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/recoletacemetery.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3177","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/recoletacemetery.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/recoletacemetery.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/recoletacemetery.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/recoletacemetery.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3177"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/recoletacemetery.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3177\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7345,"href":"https:\/\/recoletacemetery.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3177\/revisions\/7345"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/recoletacemetery.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/recoletacemetery.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/recoletacemetery.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}