The Spanish science communicator Inés Moreno Sánchez, known on social media as The Geek Traumatologist, has brought back to light the figure of Joaquín María Albarrán y Domínguez, the Cuban doctor born in Sagua la Grande who revolutionized modern urology in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Moreno Sánchez —a physician specialized in Orthopedic Surgery and Traumatology— sums up Albarrán's story with a phrase that defines his tragedy: "He discovered how to save millions of lives, was nominated for the Nobel Prize three times, and I bet you don’t know who he is."
The communicator explains that, in Albarrán's time, introducing a tube into the bladder was equivalent to a death sentence due to infection, but he transformed that situation and opened new possibilities for saving lives.
The Cuban doctor invented selective catheterizations—“tubes that entered the ureters without destroying anything, without infections; diagnoses that were once impossible are now routine”—and developed the modern cystoscope, which allowed for real-time viewing of the inside of the bladder. “Today, it is the worldwide standard,” the communicator emphasizes.
Regarding the Nobel, Moreno Sánchez points out that the awards "went to Europeans, who replicated their work but with better marketing and a French passport," and concludes: "Albarrán was Cuban, and that in 1910 means invisibility."
The video contains, however, a significant factual error: the presenter claims that Albarrán "died in Havana in 1923, almost in poverty," a statement that contradicts all the academic sources consulted, which place his death in Arcachón, France, on January 17, 1912, at the age of 51, as a victim of tuberculosis and diabetes.
Who was Joaquín Albarrán?
Albarrán was born on May 9, 1860, in Sagua la Grande, Cuba, then a Spanish colony. He became an orphan at the age of 12 and was sent to Barcelona under the guardianship of his godfather, the surgeon Joaquín Fábregas.
He graduated in Medicine at just 17 years old in 1877, earning an outstanding grade in all subjects, and obtained his doctorate in Madrid with an extraordinary award for his work on the contagion of tuberculosis.
The Cuban later settled in Paris, where he continued his career. In 1883, he obtained a position as an intern doctor in Parisian hospitals through a competitive exam, achieving the top score. In 1888, he joined the service of Professor Félix Guyon at the Necker Hospital to specialize in urinary pathways.
Upon Guyon's retirement in 1906, he was succeeded as the professor of Urology at the University of Paris, becoming the youngest full professor at the Faculty of Medicine in the French capital. He spoke five languages and was regarded, according to the Spanish Urology Association, as a "world authority in urinary tract surgery."
Joaquín Albarrán and his admiration for Cuba
Albarrán never lost his connection to the land where he was born, despite having spent almost his entire professional career outside of Cuba.
During a visit to the Island in September 1890, his Cuban colleagues honored him, during which he took the opportunity to express his desire for the country to have the necessary conditions to promote scientific development.
"I propose a toast, gentlemen, for Cuba to be provided with the elements it lacks for its complete scientific development and for the future of science, which will bring with it the moral and material future of the land where we were born," he expressed.
During those same years, the weekly El Fígaro published statements in which the doctor explained that, although the circumstances of life had led him to adopt French citizenship to advance his career, he had never renounced his Cuban identity.
"I never forget that I am Cuban, and I will always strive to make myself worthy of the homeland in which I was born," he said.
Contributions of Joaquín Albarrán to the medical sciences
His contributions endure under his own name, such as the Albarrán-Ormond syndrome, the Albarrán glands, the Albarrán test, the Albarrán disease, and the Albarrán urethrotome. They amount to at least eight medical eponyms that carry his surname.
This prominent Cuban was the first surgeon in France to perform a radical perineal prostatectomy. He also received the Order of the Legion of Honor and presided over the First International Congress of Urology in 1908.
Albarrán was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1912, the same year he died. His remains rest in the Père-Lachaise cemetery in Paris.
The Spanish Association of Urology defines him as "one of the most significant scientific figures in Urology recognized internationally." His research "set a milestone due to its high quality and brilliance of presentation."
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