Conference “Medicine and Civil War”

The Municipal Library of La Pobla de Segur became small to accommodate the large audience that attended last Friday, February 17, at the conference “Medicine and Civil War” by Dr. Lluís Colomés I Figuera.

After the welcome from the culture councillor, Ramon Enric Guimó, the contemporary history scholar and specialist in the Civil War, the poblatà Manel Gimeno gave us a pleasant initial presentation on the military hospitals in La Pobla de Segur during the time of the Spanish civil war. Then Dr. Lluís Colomés, associate professor of Medicine and Health Sciences at the Rovira i Virgili University of Tarragona and a very active member of the Fem Terret Association, who watches over the cultural heritage of this region, extensively exposed the general facts of military medicine in times of the civil war, the differences between the fascist and republican sides, the hardships in surgery and medicine, some medical advances achieved, as well as the great medical figures of this period, among which we can name doctors Moisès Broggi, Josep Trueta or Francesc Jimeno Vidal, among many others, and the qualitative leap in nursing.

Accompanied by the projection of illustrative images and his pedagogical and erudite way of speaking, with curious anecdotes such as that of the English journalist George Orwell, Dr. Colomés drew enthusiastic applause from the audience. Soon, the Councillor for Culture of this City Council will schedule a new conference by Dr. Colomés, this one on the military hospital in the Cueva de la Santa Lucía, near La Bisbal de Falset, managed by the Internacional Brigades and which will have around one hundred beds.