Diego González Rivas, Surgeon: “When you talk about happiness, people can’t question yours”

I success very much but no paused routine. And by own decision. In the first pages of his book he speaks of a moment in which, during an early morning of the first days of the pandemic, he groped the way back to bed – exaggerating or not – and does not atina to find any switch. His house in La Coruña was made an unknown place because he only stepped on it a couple of times a year. The rest? Touring the world –has been in 138 countriesto be exact- while teaching other surgeons their knowledge.

«What moves me is the passion that I have for my profession, the life I lead and the rhythm that I have. If I didn’t have this passion, I couldn’t. My fear is to lose it someday and that happened to me during the pandemic, ”he confesses.

That devotion to your profession He was born as a child. He acknowledges that he was attracted to comedy and wanted to be an actor but medicine is something that has always been in his life; His mother was a nurse and has spent a lot of time with her in the hospital. There, he remembers, “I saw how patients treated, how it improved people’s quality of life, how it helped people,” and liked the idea of ​​helping others: “I saw that surgery was a way in which you with your own hands could perform actions that directly influenced the health of others and improve their quality of life. And he began to passionate me ».

Minimally invasive uniportal surgery

Diego González Rivas began his profession like any other surgeon but it was a trip to the United States that everything began to change it. The expert tells that there was a video career, which was to operate with small incisions, without opening the thorax, and discovered thanks to other experts who could do surgery only with two incisions. “That surgeon was the only one in the world who did it, and when I returned to Spain I began to do surgery with two incisions, so we were the first in Europe to carry it out,” he says.

“One day you can be in the world of the healthy and the other in that of the sick”

Diego González Rivas

Surgeon

Learning could have stayed there but González Rivas is not formed. He realized that perhaps he could evolve even more changing the configuration and putting all the instruments for the same incision: «I said, ‘Why not?’ And I made schemes, we tried in experimental surgery and seeing that it was possible we made the first case in 2010. The rest is history.

Apparently, the surgical “tricks” are each one, but he decided to expand them: “Surgeons normally kept knowledge, perhaps for fear or for not wanting others to stand out, that they were better than you. I, on the other hand, I saw that the road was another, that things had to be done differently, and believed that if I shared knowledge, it would reach more professionals; They in turn They learn the technique And it would apply to more patients, so more people will benefit. It is the scheme that I had in my head and did not want to be the only one to practice it ».

And there was no back. Although his career began much earlier, this was a turning point in his career. Regardless of his contracts and altruistic work -which he carries out thanks to the Diego González Rivas Foundation -this surgeon has been creating centers around the world -india, Bosnia or Germany- to teach other doctors to apply the technique, in addition to teaching Masterclass and operate where no one has dared before. The main objective has always been and is reduce pain in patients.

«I like and enjoy going to other countries, motivating local surgeons, saving lives many times. If you are not going to Africa or southern America to operate them, nobody is going to do it. It’s not like here: there you are saved. In Spain we relieve, cure, we improve the quality of life, but we save lives rarely. Sometimes yes, but few, ”he says, and it is easier to understand how his mind works and his day to day.

Between operating 20 patients in a weekend or spending it lying on a sofa watching movies, Diego González Rivas stays with the first without blinking. “The happiness is doing what you like At every moment and enjoy every day. That is why many times when you talk about happiness people cannot question yours, ”he says. The weekend of March 1 was operating all afternoon with his team, helping several people: «That is unpayable. All that I lived, although within an environment of stress, keeps me alive. It is much more rewarding for me than being thrown at home thinking what to do.

It is not speed but skills what makes Diego González Rivas It has operated up to 17 lung cancer surgeries in a single day. How is it possible? With the experience that supports him. He works at the world’s largest hospital – Shanghai pulmonary hospital – because it was in China where he implemented his technique in 2012 and although the number may seem exorbitant to those who do not control the subject, as described, it is what they are accustomed to: «The day before the operations I reviewed all cases one by one and when I enter the operating room I begin to operate. I no longer open or close and there you earn time. It is an expert, trained team, who know exactly where I want the incision ».

Someone close

Although it does not have an exact number of people intervened, this surgeon has treated more than 10,000 people, many of them were alone but the vast majority had relatives who expected them. In his book you can read how on numerous occasions he maintains conversations with all of them, and the great is overwhelming empathy which shows for these patients.

«I try not to affect me, but sometimes it happens. I try to focus on the person I am operating and when I open a technical act. You cannot let yourself be influenced by who is on the table, for its tragedy. Of course, when you finish surgery, the relationship with the patient is already beginning. Am very affectionate with themvery close, I give you my mobile, I hug you … I love that closeness; It is fundamental because it is therapeutic, ”considers the doctor.

Being so close makes it, in turn, a humble person. For him, “life is a roller coaster,” and ensures that doctors know better than anyone. “Today you are fine and tomorrow they diagnose a serious illness,” he recalls, and affirms that, sometimes, when he has a patient with a tumor or cancer, it may seem that “they are on one side and you live in another world, in the world of the healthy”: “That patient who is sick now a few days ago was like you, was in the world of healthy. Never lose sight of this because You can become a sick. That is why it is important to be humble ».

New steps

Going from here to there, meet so many people and have so many projects in mind -especially in its foundation -makes Diego González Rivas have the complete agenda, as little, until next year. «We have to go to Ivory’s coast, then to Sierra Leone also with the Foundation, Angola … I have gotten into too many things. I complicate my life alone but I love to complicate it ».

You have to read the 214 pages of your book ‘Healing the world: a newspaper of a nomadic surgeon‘To be aware that healing is the most important thing for him. Tiredness can sometimes also, also the few facilities he finds in countries like Ghana -where he has arrived with the mobile unit of the foundation that bears his name -but for him, and this is a phrase that we should all have in mind, “impossible is nothing.”

About Diego González Rivas

Diego González Rivas (La Coruña, 1974) is a Spanish surgeon, creator of the thoracic surgery technique minimally invasive video assisted that operates with a single incision. His technique has been adopted by many thoracic surgeons worldwide and directs the thoracic video career program in the Shanghai pulmonary hospital. He has created his own Foundation, which bears his name.