Obituary: Dr Fabian lsamat

Dr Fabian ISAMAT passed away on the 29th June 2019, suddenly, at the age of 89.

Dr Fabian ISAMAT de la Riva was born in Barcelona in August 1930. He studied Medicine in Barcelona, graduating in 1953. After a short stay with Dr Adolfo Ley in Barcelona he turned his vision to the United States were he trained with Dr Paul Bucy at the North Western University of Chicago and with Irwing Cooper learning Parkinson in San Barnabas Hospital in New York. He obtained the USA Board Certification in Neurosurgery.
 
After completing his training he returned to Spain to work as a Chief of Neurosurgery at  the Hospital Sagrado Corazon in Barcelona. He married Marivi Riviere in 1961 and had 5 children together. None of his children though followed his footsteps into medicine.
 
In 1973 he became Chief of Neurosurgery at the Hospital de Bellvitge were he practiced until his retirement in 2000. He became Professor of Neurosurgery at the UAB University.
 
Dr Fabian ISAMAT was always committed and a great believer in unifying European Neurosurgery.  He served as a Training Committee Chair and later as EANS president 1987-1989 which was meant to be one of the golden periods of our Society.  He reached out to the Eastern countries during his mandate. Drs Brook, Konovalov, Thomas, Foroglou, Simon, Calliaw, Garfield & Brihaye where amongst a large list of neurosurgeons that he considered closest friends. He was also the Vice President of the WFNS and he led one of the top neurosurgical schools in Spain in the 1980s and 1990s.

His main area of expertise became the brain stem microsurgery and access to the cavernous sinus, surgeries that he performed with elegance.
He liked to collect Catalan paintings and maintained great relationships with many of the contemporary artists. He also collected phrenology heads which he obtained from all over the world.
 
We, in Barcelona, had the opportunity to share his knowledge as well as his passions. He will be dearly remembered by all of us who were fortunate to meet him. Here’s to a gentleman and an extraordinary neurosurgeon. Fabian ISAMAT (1930-2019) rest in peace.
 
Jesus Lafuente
EANS President