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ECR 2004 / C-082
Radiological exploration of the embalmed cadaver of Eva Peron
Congress:
ECR 2004
Poster Number:
C-082
Type:
Educational
Keywords:
Authors:
C. H. Gotta,
A. E. Buzzi
; Buenos Aires/AR
DOI:
10.1594/ECR04/C-082
DOI-Link:
https://dx.doi.org/10.1594/ECR04/C-082
Fig. 1:
In the title rol in "The Prodigal" (1954)
Fig. 2:
Evita was the center of a growing political power, maybe so strong as that of...
Fig. 3:
Evita, by 1950. She was the most characteristic personality and of bigger...
Fig. 4:
Evita used a populist oration that catapulted Perón to the Presidency, and...
Fig. 5:
Rceiving fron General Francisco Franco the "Isabella The Catholic's Great...
Fig. 6:
Evita leaving the Papal audience. She is accompanied by monsignor Migone and by...
Fig. 7:
Eva Perón (1919-1952)
Fig. 8:
She developed a populist politics of social help.
Fig. 9:
Evita dialoguing with the multitude. It was one of the major exhibitions of...
Fig. 10:
Dr Oscar Ivanissevich, Minister of Education, with Evita during a political...
Fig. 11:
Dr George Pack, surgeon from New York, operated Evita in November, 1951, and...
Fig. 12:
One week later her second operation it took place the presidential elections...
Fig. 13:
On June 4th, 1952 Evita accompanied Perón to the Act of Oath of his second...
Fig. 14:
One of the lasts pictures of Evita. She weighed 33 kilos.
Fig. 15
Fig. 16:
There was a funeral retinue to the National Congress. The casket was thrown by...
Fig. 17:
The funeral retinue to the National Congress.
Fig. 18:
Dr Pedro Ara (1891-1973), with the uniform of Cultural Attaché of the...
Fig. 19:
The embalmed corps of Eva Perón.
Fig. 20:
Bust of an old beggar embalmed by Dr Ara, who had placed it in a pedestal in...
Fig. 21:
The face of Evita is a proof of the Professor's Ara expertise in the...
Fig. 22:
Dr. Ara next to the embalmed corps of Evita. Note the rosary given by the Pope...
Fig. 23:
Dr. Pedro Ara (1891-1973)
Fig. 24:
Dr Guido Gotta. He obtained the radiographs of the embalmed corps of Eva...
Fig. 25:
X-ray image of the head of the embalmed corps of Eva Perón.
Fig. 26
Fig. 27:
X-ray image of the abdomen of the embalmed corps of Eva Perón. The hands...
Fig. 28:
X-ray image of the legs, the ankles and the feet of the embalmed corps of Eva...
Fig. 29:
Detail of an X-ray image of the right leg of the embalmed corps of Eva...
Fig. 30:
Detail of an X-ray image of the thorax and the superior abdomen of the embalmed...
Fig. 31:
November 17 th, 1974. Eighteen years later Evita's embalmed corps returned to...
Imaging findings OR Procedure details
Of humble and provincial origin, Eva Duarte arrived at the City of Buenos Aires during her teens, alone, without neither education nor resources. She was a radio and screen
actress of certain fame, and head a very listened radio program.Then she met Pern (who doubled her in age), and tied to him her destination.Mara Eva Duarte of Pern, like it was called at the beginning, Eva Pern, like she was known in her last years, Evita, as she was baptized by the people, that woman", as she was called by the opposition, was a figure that broke all the historical precedents, and
defined a modality never seen before in Argentine. She was the more admired, feared, hated and loved woman of her time.During the brief period of her performance (the 6 years between 1946 and her death in 1952) Evita played roles of enormous transcendency in the rgime.She became
the soul of the Peronist movement, its essence and
its voice. Also, she projected an
seductive and original image during a
trip to Europe.In few months she demonstrated a
vigorous personality and an indefatigable work capacity, and organized a foundation from which she developed a
populist politics of social help that reached an
enormous dimension. So much generosity went together to an authoritarian mentality that demanded fanatic loyalties.By 1950 Pern's presidency had become an authoritarian government, and the political activities of the opposition had been limited.In this political context, it began to circulate the news of a probable illness of Evita. In 1950 she was operated by the surgeon
Dr Oscar Ivanissevich, Minister of Education. The official diagnosis was appendicitis. However, it transcended that the surgeon found a more aggressive disease. Dr Ivanissevich prescribed an hysterectomy, but Evita refused the surgery.She was re-operated more than one year later by the surgeon from New York
Dr. George Pack. This operation, officially successful, demonstrated the pelvis infiltrated by an advanced cervix cancer. Later, she received radiotherapy applications. A compassionate conspiracy hid the true illness to the public.The physical deterioration was
evident. In her
public appearances she looked
markedly emaciated.
She died on Saturday July 26th, 1952. Mourning was imposed by ordinance. The wake was
majestic: programmed for three days, it lasted 15 days. There was a funeral retinue
to the National Congress, and then the corps was deposited in the General Confederation of Work (Confederacin General del Trabajado, CGT) remaining there until Pern's overthrown in 1955.According to Evita's desire of being embalmed Pern contacted the anatomist Professor Dr. Pedro Ara, who was
Cultural Attach of the Embassy of Spain in Buenos Aires. The final result of this work is
astonishing.Dr. Ara born in Zaragoza (Spain) in 1891. He graduated in Medicine in Spain in 1916. He went to Argentina, and in 1925 he was Director of the Institute of Anatomy of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Crdoba, where he develop an intense educational activity.Dr Ara had created techniques of corps conservation with extraordinary fidelity. Many of those
pieces - near 3000 - are still conserved in the Museum of Anatomy of the Hospital de Clnicas in Crdoba, Argentine.He had also embalmed the hands of the Spanish composer Manuel de Falla, who died in Buenos Aires.Although it was never known how he achieved such results, he suggested that the main facts were injections of paraffin. The method of paraffination, was described by the Belgian Len Frederick in 1876, as a method of substituting tissue water by a substance (paraffin) fused by heat, that hardens when cooled down, avoiding the retraction of the dry, mummified preparation. For the organ to be impregnated of paraffin it is necessary its previous mixture with a liquid miscible in it."Dr Ara began his work the night of Evitas dead, but only when the corps was taken to the CGT (August 11th., 1952) it began the true task of giving it perpetuity.The Aragonese Professor worked during one year until he could inform Pern that the embalm had been completed without taking out any viscera nor opening any corporal cavity."Only two superficial incisions have been made", he said. In fact Ara referred to its author signature", the small incisions that he made in the
lobe of the left ear and of the left foot, and in those later Pern would recognize the authenticity of the mummy. According to Dr. Ara's own words,
when he concluded the cadaver was incorruptible.
Dr Ara died in Buenos Aires in 1973. He refused emphatically to be a embalmer: he called himself an anatomist.In 1955, Argentine was again place of serious political disturbances. Pern's rgime had become clearly dictatorial and the disturbances happened daily. He was deposed by a military coup in September of that year.The new military authorities should solve the problem of Evitas embalmed corps, that could become a new reason for more violence.Many people doubts that her embalmed corps belong to her. The military Government decided to carry out a meticulous and exhaustive investigation that offers the evidence that it truely is Evita's corps or, otherwise, uncovers a possible macabre fraud perpetrated by the Peronist authorities.The authorities summoned a meeting of physicians constituted by noted professors from Buenos Aires. They indicated, among other tests, the necessity to obtain radiograms of the corps.
Dr. Guido Gotta -father of one of the authors- was convoked (it is of noticing that Dr. Quiroga Losada had already made radiographies of the body).Dr. Guido Gotta went to the General Confederation of Work (Confederacin General del Trabajado, CGT), and a technical radiologist helped him to obtain radiographs of
the skull,
the thorax,
the abdomen and
the lower extremities with a rolling X-rays apparatus. As in the CGT there were not appropriate conditions to develop the films, Dr. Gotta suggested to do it in his clinic.The X-ray pictures confirm that the body correspond to a human being, and that the corps conserve all the viscera. Partially wrapped up in air are seen the brain, the heart and the lungs, and all the abdominal organs. The crossed hands sustain a rosary of silver and mother-of-pearl given to Evita by the Pope Po XII.The recognition of pathologic images in the films is difficult. Nevertheless, there is an
osteolyic lesion in the tibia, and a
nodular formation in the hepatic dome (metastasis?)In 1955 the cadaver began a long and tortuous pilgrimage that culminated in September, 1971, when it was given to Pern, who was exile in Madrid. The corps remained in Madrid until 1974, when Mara Estela Martinez de Peron (Perns third wife and President of Argentine after her husband's death) made it
return to Argentine. During the military coup of 1976, the corps was given to Duartes family and deposited in the family vault of the Recoleta cemetery.
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