(CNN Español) – “Tears fell” when one of his patients arrived at his office with two chickens as payment for prostate surgery, says Dr. Alvaro Ramalo Zamora, a urologist who lives in Tarija, near the Bolivian border with Argentina. .
“I was so full of emotions,” Ramalo Zamora told CNN en Español. “I really cried seeing this nobility. It’s been years since I’ve seen something like this… It transported me to the past and made me remember my father.”
His father, who was a urologist in the 1960s, died 11 years ago.
“Excited and very happy, last night this grandfather did not have the money to undergo prostate surgery, and I replied that we were going to operate on him for the Dr. José Ramalo Guillen Foundation, and that is my surprise when he brought out two chickens as a gift to give back to me. I was very touched and moved and from heaven, Dear Father, I know that you are glad to know that I have followed in your footsteps in the welfare of these humble and simple people of the Chappa people….”, wrote on facebook.
The doctor took a picture to memorialize the moment. He appears in it with one animal in his arms and the patient Pedro Quintana, wearing a hat and the other animal in his hand.
Last Friday, Quintana arrived at Dr. Ramalo’s office.
“I felt bad,” the man told CNN, adding that he couldn’t pee well.
“I live alone out there in Santa Lucia,” Quintana, 80, said, pointing to his back, trying to locate the pain.
Quintana, who says he has no children, lives in the area, about three hours from Tajira where he underwent surgery, in southern Bolivia. When the doctor told him he was going to have surgery, Dr. Ramalu said, he was “sad.” He left and came back with two chickens.
Quintana says he did it because he was in love with the doctor and wanted to thank him.
Ramalo says he accepted the chicken happily because he understands the gratitude of the rural people, and also remembers that in the past it was like that.
Two chickens to pay
According to Ramalo, when his patient arrived, they put up an investigation on him and told him that they had to operate on him.
“He’s feeling a little sad, logically because of the costly surgery,” Ramalu told CNN. “I told him we’d do it for free through the establishment. Then he changed his face and left my office and came back on time with two chickens: a rooster and a hen.”
He said the animals already had names – Clotilde and Ramon – and would stay with the doctor.
“My wife was moved, I took a picture and they are from the institution now,” he said. “We don’t cook it, and we won’t do anything. We are very happy.”
The doctor told CNN that Quintana is recovering, and will likely be discharged from the hospital this weekend and go home, news that he received with a grateful smile.