Helmut BertalanffyHannover, March 2021
With sorrow and grief in my heart am I writing these lines, and my thoughts are now
with Evandro's family, especially with Marina.
I met Evandro more than 2 decades ago, when I already knew about him from my friend
Toshio Matsushima, Japan. Many years ago he spent with Toshio a certain time period
in Florida at Dr. Al Rhoton's neuroanatomical lab. Both lay there an important foundation
stone for their future work.
Thereafter, I had the opportunity of meeting Evandro what seems countless times at
various neurosurgical congresses and workshops in many parts of the world. This surely
created quite strong friendship ties between us. However, as we used to live quite
far away from each other, not meeting personally for even a longer period of time
did not have much significance because it was expectable that we might see each other
again on some occasion in the future. The recent information about his passing away
deeply moved me because I realized that there will be no such future occasion, and
I will never have the chance to meet Evandro again. Together with many other international
colleagues I lost a good friend for ever. Such a painful experience!
I am sure that other colleagues who knew Evandro better than me will adequately evaluate
and appreciate his academic and professional life-time achievements and his extraordinary
contributions to neurosurgery that cannot be described in only few lines. But apart
from such objective facts, Evandro will always remain in our memory for many other
reasons. There is no doubt that he was a technical master of his profession and a
famous representative of the „global“ neurosurgical community. But what made Evandro
outstanding? It was not only his high professional level, it was also his exceptional
character and warm personality. Looking back into the past, I always admired Evandro
for his enthusiasm and affinity for neuroanatomy, for his three-dimensional imagination,
for his unique presentations from which not only young but also experienced neurosurgeons
like me could learn something new, for his elegant style of presenting a certain surgical
field in direct comparison with an illustrative anatomical dissection, for his constant
wish to share his profound experience with others, for his technical skills exemplified
by the clearly structured and bloodless way he carried out his neurosurgical procedures,
for his qualities as clinician and teacher, and for his prudent way of communication
mixed with humor, just to name a few of his strong points.
I enjoyed sharing with Evandro the membership in the World Academy of Neurosurgery
(WANS) and in the Nominating Committee of the World Federation of Neurosurgical Societies,
among others. I will not forget our many meetings in various places of Japan, in the
USA (e.g. New Orleans, St. Louis), in Argentina (with our families), in Portugal (Braga,
together with Guilherme Ribas), in France (Paris) and many other places, and of course
in Brazil, for instance 2008 at the neurosurgical meeting organized by Evandro in
Iguassu.
If I could tell Evandro directly some farewell words, these would perhaps be: “it
was a privilege knowing you, my friend Evandro; I will miss you; I will miss your
contagious smile; I will miss your professional inspiration; you were a great man,
a superb and energetic neurosurgeon; we will not forget you; be sure that people will
always hold you in the highest regard!“ ([Figs. 1]
[2]
[3]
[4]
[5]
[6]).
Fig. 1 Professors Helmut Bertalanffy, Evandro de Oliveira and Ossama Al- Mefty in St Louis
– USA, 2008.
Fig. 2 Evandro scrubbing, Braga- Portugal, 2010.
Fig. 3 Professors Helmut Bertalanffy and Evandro de Oliveira in Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil, 2008.
Fig. 4 Evandro working during a travel in Japan.
Fig. 5 Professors Helmut Bertalanffy, Evandro de Oliveira, Carlos Alegria and Guilherme
Carvalhal Ribas, Braga – Portugal, 2010.
Fig. 6 Helmut Bertalanffy, Evandro de Oliveira and spounses, Marina and Atsuko, Argentina,
November 2010.
