Remembrances Two Centuries, Two Countries, Two Husbands chronicles the life of a successful Buenos Aires-born woman who straddles two countries and two very different medical worlds during a century of transition. Luisa Stigol received her medical degree in Buenos Aires during the oppressive reign of President Juan Peron when his party dominated Argentina. Ten years later, Stigol relocated her family to Boston where, for thirty years, she was a pediatrician connected with the Harvard Children's Hospital. Follow Stigol's candid descriptions of a doctor's sometimes painful, sometimes joyful encounters with patients and their families, during a career that reflects dramatic changes occurring in medical care. Stigol's personal life intertwines with her challenges as a physician. Paradoxically, a woman who succeeded in a challenging medical career was unaware of the painful reality that she was married to a man consumed by alcohol dependency. That and Stigol's successful battle with cancer lets readers bear witness to the life of a physician whose experiences additionally reflect the transition in a woman's role.
About the Author: Luisa Stigol's life and memoir reflect her passions: for study, her efforts to see a world without prejudice or violence, and her sincere caring for others She has additionally embraced two avatars: that of a woman in medicine and that of a mother to three children. She was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1930, graduating as a Doctor in Medicine in 1954 from the School of Medicine, National University of Buenos Aires. Stigol was appointed to the National Council of Scientific and Technical Research (Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cientificas y Tecnicas.) Years later, her doctoral thesis about breathing in chronic poliomyelitis patients, brought her to relocate her family to Boston where, in 1962, she became a Fellow at the Department of Physiology at the Harvard School of Public Health. Three years later, Stigol returned as Research Associate at the same Department. In 1968, she became Fellow in Pathology at Boston Children's Hospital, and in 1973, she returned to the practice of pediatrics at Dedham Medical Associates, where she worked for thirty-four years. Stigol was awarded the von L. Meyer Award at the Department of Pathology of Children's Hospital. Additionally, she was active in the prevention of violence, and among other such activities, appointed as Principal Investigator of the Violence Prevention Project of the Harvard Community Health Foundation in 1991. In 1993, she became a member of the new Committee on Domestic Violence of the Massachusetts Medical Society (MMS). In 1994, Stigol was given the "Women in Medicine Award" of the MMS. Today, Stigol resides in Boston where she continues volunteer work as a docent for the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.