Evitas lobotomy secret is revealed
Revelations of a secret lobotomy performed on Evita Peron have flourished in a broadcast documentary aired this year, shining new light on the extreme pain…
Eva Peron and her husband Gen. Juan Peron pose in Buenos Aires, Argentina in this undated photo. Peron’s dying days held two secrets about her health that even she wasn’t aware of. (AP Photo/files)
Revelations of a secret lobotomy performed on Evita Peron have flourished in a broadcast documentary aired this year, shining new light on the extreme pain she experienced as her health problems worsened.
“TN News” in Argentina broadcast the surprising documentary on March 28th. It included research from journalist Nelson Castro regarding Evitas health prior to her death. The program was based on a “The New York Times” publication by Barron H. Lerner, a professor of medicine and public health at Columbia University. Castro uncovered the suffering of Eva Duarte Peron’s lasts days as doctors tried to relieve the ominous pain she experienced.
SEE ALSO: Argentina remembers Evita Peron 60 years after her death
The lobotomy was secretly performed in 1952, according to a Yale University study based on an x-ray of Evitas skull. It was an attempt to relieve the intense pain that she suffered as a result of the uterine cancer that slowly killed her. New evidence in favor of what until now was only suspicion was recently published online by “World Neurosurgery Journal.”
Castro decided to travel to the USA to interview those who discovered the secret the was kept for 60 years: a mysterious operation surrounded by lies and concealment that turned out to be two secrets, instead.
Dr. George Pack Operates on Evita
After she was diagnosed with cervical cancer, Eva Perón was operated on by surgeon Dr. George Pack atPresident Perón hospital, located in Buenos Aires. It was a State secret: Evita never even knew that an American had been in charge of the surgery. These were times of profound rejection towards everything American and foreign in general. Evita, as a Peronist leader, never would have allowed American hands to touch her had she known, but Perón only wished for his beloved Evita not to suffer.
Dr. Nijensohn’s Findings
It was Dr. Daniel Nijensohn, an Argentine neurosurgeon and Professor of the Department of Neurosurgery at Yale University in the United States, who conducted the research that found the evidence of a surgery that “has remained silent for more than half a century.”
The investigation began in 2005, when Hungarian surgeon George Udvarhelyi, who lived in Argentina between 1948 and 1953, told the “Baltimore Sun” newspaper that he had participated in a lobotomy performed on Eva Perón. The investigation revealed that his statements were correct, and that Dr. James L. Poppen was the neurosurgeon who performed the surgery.
French foreign minister Georges Bidault (R) greets Eva Peron on July 21, 1947, as she arrives at Orly airport for a visit in France. (Photo/ OFF/Global Post)
Dr. Poppen Operates
Neurosurgeon Dr. James L. Poppen was already famous for having operated on John F. Kennedy for a herniated disc in 1943. He performed a prefrontal lobotomy on Peron, unbeknownst to even her, in Buenos Aires between the end of May and beginning of June in 1952, shortly before her death on July 26 of that year. Dr. Poppen, from the Lahey Clinic of Boston, was a recognized expert on the use of lobotomies for the treatment of refractory pain, but also was the author of a book entitled “Perón, the man” (1955).
SEE ALSO: Evita, defender of women’s rights in Argentina
In fact, Peron and Dr. Poppen met on several occasions, and the doctor showed a special sympathy for the Argentine politician to the point that there was this idea that he was Eisenhowers goodwill ambassador towards Perón, as stated in a once confidential document from the U.S. now open to TN.
“He was very good friends with Juan Domingo Perón,” said Dr. Nijensohn to “La Nación” newspaper, and pointed out that Dr. Poppens instrumentalist and confidant in the 60′s, a “provided much information” about the North American doctor in Buenos Aires as Dr. Poppen had given her “much information on the lobotomy of Eva Perón.”
Proof of her Lobotomy
The most relevant research data appears in an x-ray of the mummified remains of Eva Perón. She was embalmed when she died, and three years after her death–at the request of the military government of the Revolución Libertadora that toppled Juan Domingo Perón–a series of in-depth analysis to confirm the identity of the corpse were made. The tests revealed the damage that the intervention had left in her skull.
An x-ray was taken in 1955 and was lost, but 60 years later,the missing proof appeared: radiographs are exposed in the documentary “Evita: a tomb without peace” (1997) by filmmaker Tristán Bauer, current president of Radio and TV Argentina (RTA).
In the documentary there are two x-rays of the skull hanging from a negatoscope. “There are two circular radiolucent images indicating that the skull was subjected to two trepanations,” says Dr. Nijensohn.
Did Evita´s lobotomy have any real effect as a palliative for pain? Dr. Nijelsohn believes it took no pain away, but rather changed the emotional reaction to pain.
“Patients became childish, expressionless, they didnt ask for more pain medication or asked for much less, and had no external signs of intense suffering,” he concluded.
Evas pain was more and more unbearable in her final weeks, and Perón did everything possible to reduce her suffering.
