Piero Corti
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Piero Corti (Besana in Brianza , 16 sectember 1925 – Milano , 20 april 2003),
was an italian doctor who chose to work in a hospital in Uganda most of his lifetime.[1]
Childhood between war and illnesses
Piero Corti, whose real name was Pietro, was born in Besana in Brianza on the 16th sectember 1925. Son of Mario Corti, famous for his strictness but always benevolent towards him, brother of Eugenio, a famous writer and essayist, 4 years elder than him, Piero grew up in a relatively wealthy family, because it had performed in the silk trade at first and then it had invested in the building field.
At the age of 7 a bad pneumonia risked to kill him because of his poor health [2], so he was sent by his parents in a college in Stresa,on the Maggiore lake,with his brothers,as wealthy families used to do at that time. He came back to Besana during the Second World War. After a bombardment over Milan, his father sent piero and his brother Giovanni to check their apartment there , and even in that circumstance the teenager showed a clinical gaze at death [3].
Young Budding Doctor
His deep Christian belief and his unselfish soul developed in him the desire to be a doctor, and in particular a doctor in foreign lands. Despite his friends skepticism, Piero enrolled the school Medicine and Surgery at Milan University, where he graduated. There, in Milan, he met a young girl, Benedetta Bianchi Porro, who was studying medicine to live her life in Africa as a missionery. Piero, who was in love with her sister Manuela, a famous dancer, despite the age gap, was very close to that girl and when he discovere d about her sickness that brought her to death, he promised that he would become a doctor in Africa for her and he would work for two [4]. After the graduation, he followed a friend's advice, Agatha Sidlauskas, a psycologist that he met in Italy because she was a collaborator of Father Agostino Gemelli[5], and he moved to Canada where he got the specializations in radiology, neuropsychiatry and pediatrics at Hôpital Sainte Justine pour les enfants in Montreal. There, during his studies, he met another canadian colleague who was specializing in surgery,Lucille Teasdale, excellent doctor, who had wanted to be a doctor to fight injustice since she was a child [6] and she seemed perfect to Piero for his future projects.
When dreams come true
After some intimacy, Piero and Lucille did not met for a periond in which Piero was searching for a place where he could realize his dream. When they met again in Marsiglia, Piero told Lucille about his seven months in India and Africa, where he had rejoined his brother Corrado, missionery in Ciad [7], and he managed to convince Lucille to go with him for some months: destination Uganda.
On the 1st May 1961 Piero e Lucille landed together in Entebbe, capital city of Uganda as a British protectorate, where brother Toni Biasin, a combonian missionery, was waiting for them to bring them in Kampala, city where the surgeon Denis Burkitt operated [8]. He sent them to Gulu [9], where combonian fathers had built some dispensaries. They settled down in Lacor, a small village 11 m far from Gulu. land of the acoli tribe.
The dispensary, ruled by combonians sisters who worked there as nurses and widwives, was composed at the beginning by just one pavilion which had a surgery and at least 40 maternity beds [10]. There Lucille began to work as a surgeon and Piero was the anesthetist, the radiologist and the manager. They fell in love and got married in the chapel of little hospital on the 5th December 1961; on the 17th november 1962 Lucille gave birth to their daughter Dominique [11]. As well as the ordinary work and the sanitary business , there was the effort to find fundings for the hospital. Piero started an epistolary correspondance with many people, doing several journeys to Europe; he was often in Italy in order to achieve money medical equipment. The best therapy, at the less price for the greatest number of people, was his motto [12]. in that period very important doctors passed by St.Mary's Hospital, such as Doctor Arshad Warley, southafrican pediatrician who had asiatic origin and was professor at Makerere University [13].
Bibliography
- [un sogno per la vita a cura di Michel Arseneault], Torino, Paoline editoriale libri, 2004;
- [dal sogno alla realtà], lettere dal Lacor hospital,Uganda,Corponove, 2009
References
- ^ "Doctor Corti's Good Fight". Traces. 2003.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|month=ignored (help) - ^ Michel Arseneault, "Un sogno per la vita- Lucille e Piero Corti, una coppia di medici in prima linea" - Paoline Editoriale Libri, Torino, 2004, pag.27
- ^ Michel Arseneault, "Un sogno per la vita- Lucille e Piero Corti, una coppia di medici in prima linea" - Paoline Editoriale Libri, Torino, 2004, pag.32
- ^ Michel Arseneault, "Un sogno per la vita- Lucille e Piero Corti, una coppia di medici in prima linea" - Paoline Editoriale Libri, Torino, 2004, pag.68
- ^ Michel Arseneault, "Un sogno per la vita- Lucille e Piero Corti, una coppia di medici in prima linea" - Paoline Editoriale Libri, Torino, 2004, pag.35
- ^ Michel Arseneault, "Un sogno per la vita- Lucille e Piero Corti, una coppia di medici in prima linea" - Paoline Editoriale Libri, Torino, 2004, pag.23
- ^ Michel Arseneault, "Un sogno per la vita- Lucille e Piero Corti, una coppia di medici in prima linea" - Paoline Editoriale Libri, Torino, 2004, pag.24
- ^ Michel Arseneault, "Un sogno per la vita- Lucille e Piero Corti, una coppia di medici in prima linea" - Paoline Editoriale Libri, Torino, 2004, pag.37
- ^ Michel Arseneault, "Un sogno per la vita- Lucille e Piero Corti, una coppia di medici in prima linea" - Paoline Editoriale Libri, Torino, 2004, pag.39
- ^ Michel Arseneault, "Un sogno per la vita- Lucille e Piero Corti, una coppia di medici in prima linea" - Paoline Editoriale Libri, Torino, 2004, pag.44
- ^ Michel Arseneault, "Un sogno per la vita- Lucille e Piero Corti, una coppia di medici in prima linea" - Paoline Editoriale Libri, Torino, 2004, pag.131
- ^ Fondazione Piero e Lucille Corti- Dal sogno alla realtà- Lettere dal lacor Hospital Uganda, Corponove Editrice, Bergamo, Settembre 2009
- ^ Michel Arseneault, "Un sogno per la vita- Lucille e Piero Corti, una coppia di medici in prima linea" - Paoline Editoriale Libri, Torino, 2004, pag.128