George T. Pack was one of the top cancer surgeons of the first half of the twentieth century. Among other important accomplishments, he founded the Gastric and Mixed Tumor Service where he was "Mr. Melanoma" at Memorial Sloane Kettering Cancer Center and treated countless international dignitaries, most famously Eva Peron and, surreptiously, Franklin Roosevelt.
Ruben Oropeza from 1963 to Pack's death was Pack's closest protegee and confidante. After Pack's stroke and heart attack, Oropeza performed all of his surgery with Pack scrubbed in at his side. He was totally devoted to Pack and managed all his medical affairs. Pack confided in him as he did with only one other individual, Dr. Irving Ariel. Ariel was sworn to secrecy about many of the details of what Pack told him. Oropeza is alive and well at age 81 and living in Texas and Mexico.
Dr. Oropeza has related information to me that is reliable and authoritarian. His recollections about Pack are quite analagous and equally as reliable as those of Margaret "Daisy" Suckley were to FDR.
As with Daisy, the vast balance of the material is an incredibly valuable and unique archive. I will be posting excerpts of his notes and hope to incorporate the material into a journal article.
The photographs above were among the archive I have so far received. With respect to FDR, there were two operations he personally performed on the melanoma, one local and the other (with Frank Lahey in Boston) an abdominal "open and close" procedure. The dates are still unclear.
Ruben Oropeza is the last living link to unlocking the truth of FDR. I will be posting excerpts from the material and hope to incorporate it into a more comprehensive scientific paper. I am incredibly fortunate to have been able to contact him.
Happy New Year to all!
SL
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Dr. Oropeza was a failure as a family man and a Husband.
ReplyDeleteLeonardo, yours is only a small love. Bitterness has sharpened your tongue. It's sad!
DeleteDr. Oropeza is my father. So I have intimate and specific knowledge about what I am talking about.
DeleteCan you ask Dr Oropaza if he remembers a lady Faye Bialik?
DeleteSorry, are you hurt in someway? .. I can't make those questions to my uncle! On the top, his Health is declining .. Why you don't asked him all you want and straight your good relationship with him? .. We live one's and we have to try to be Merciful with others as God is with us !
DeleteTo anyone reading this. This man is NOT Ruben Oropeza's son. "Vantone" or "Leonardo" as he is claiming to be. My father is Ruben's only son and would never say these things about him. My grandfather was a loving father and grandfather.
DeleteDr. Oropeza is my great uncle and he is a very good and intelligent man, so Leonardo if you don´t know him please refrain of your comments
ReplyDeleteHe is my father. So I speak with the most authority on this page about him as a man.
DeleteIs your father well? We had a wonderful relation for many years. I only have nice things to say about him. I considered him as a loyal friend and a wonderful surgeon. Please give grim my best wishes.
DeleteDr. Oropeza has sown good seeds by good example, not only in his family but in all relatives, friends and people that surround him. His perseverance and virtuosity in all, is not a failure, but plentiful, joyful and heroic. All he has been doing has been done for love. In that way there are neither little or poor things in him, everything is big and rich!
ReplyDeleteDr. George T, Pack, Sr. was my grandfather. Sadly, his life was his work. The man came to the hospital the day I was born, and I never saw him after that. He died when I was 14, and the only correspondence from him was a letter from whatever country he was in. I have heard from people whose life he saved, which makes you feel good, but doesn't take away the sadness that we never got to spend time with him.
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ReplyDeleteEsther Harvey you are completely misinformed. As his son I am in posession of all the facts. Great Surgeion..yes, respected by his piers..yes, admired by his patients yes. None of those things matter in light of who he was in private to his direct family. Don't feel too bad you are not the only one he's fooled.
ReplyDeleteDavey boy, cry me another river. Poor baby h as Daddy issues. Fact is you were always a doosh and the apple didn't fall far from the tree. You, your family are known antisemites...rot in hell loser!
ReplyDeleteMy father, Dr.Gonzalo Vargas Aguilar, Costa Rica's first certified anesthesiologist was a protegé of Dr. Pack who brought him to train at his side at Memorial Hospital Center in the early 40s. They traveled together to C.R. at the country's president's request to operate on his ailing father.
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ReplyDeleteDr.Pack was kind and supportive. On occasion had my parents as guests at his Pennsylvania farm.
ReplyDeleteI keep a framed picture of Dr.Pack inscribed 'To my protege, Dr Gonzalo Vargas with my affection,George Pack' fondly and proudly on display at home.
I had the misfortune of being a patient of Dr Pack. I hated him for what he did to me. Instead of telling me what was wrong with me, not even telling my mother, about the surgery he was planning in spite of the fact that stage one Hodgkin’s disease was already being treated innPalo Alto with radiation witch became the standard. Dr Pack did a radical neck dissection discfiguring me when it was not necessary. He just went ahead with surgery using the incision he had invented years ago. My recollection of him is of a mean, horrible person who thought he was God!
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