Around 1942, Julio de Caro’s orchestra was the most
successful one at downtown cabarets. One of his musicians was having a hard
time, since his little daughter had a serious health problem. An insect had
entered into the girl’s ear and
caused an infection in her head which was endangering her life.
De Caro, who knew about this situation, wanted to help his musician, and
offered him to arrange an interview with dr. Ricardo Finochietto, who was
his personal friend and a very prestigious doctor at that moment, so that
the musician and his wife could have another medical opinion.
Julio talked to his friend and Finochietto told him he wanted to see
the girl as soon as possible. When he saw how serious her condition was, he
told the girl’s family she needed surgery immediately, because it was a
life or death situation.
The prestigious doctor didn’t have the elements modern medicine has:
sulfamides, antibiotics, or the technology that could guarantee the good
results of an operation. However, Finochietto was very famous for his talent
and ability as a doctor. At the
operation room, and because the area affected was such a sensitive one, the
doctor used his tongue to clean the infection, and thanks to his
intelligence, the kid saved her life.
This brilliant fact is registered in the history of
Argentine medicine as one of the most striking medical resources, and it
even trespassed the boundaries of our country, being considered as a great
achievement of Argentine medical science by medicine academies all around
the world.
As a way of thanking the doctor for his attention, Julio de Caro dedicated
him the tango “Buen amigo” (“Good friend”), which was recorded by
his singer Agustín Volpe.
Some years later, de Caro’s best pupil, Osvaldo Pugliese , recorded it
with his orchestra, on March 26th, 1958, and became a success.
