On October 1, Dr. Leonardo H. Mc Lean passed away at the age of 88 in Pilar, province of Buenos Aires. A descendant of Scottish immigrants who arrived in our lands at the end of the 18th century, Patucho -as everyone has called him since his childhoodwas born in the city of Buenos Aires on October 24, 1933.

He graduated as a physician from the School of Medicine of the University of Buenos Aires in 1958 and 10 years later defended his doctoral thesis “Closed loop large bowel obstruction”, with which he was awarded the degree of Doctor of Medicine, with honors. He developed an extensive and committed career in our Asociación Argentina de Cirugía, where he became president in 1999 after having chaired the 68th Argentine Congress in 1997. He was also president of Academia Argentina de Cirugía in 2003.

He received his training in general surgery at Hospital Británico de Buenos Aires with Dr. Alberto Laurence, and thereafter he asked Dr. Julio V. Uriburu to be admitted as an assistant to his surgery department in Hospital Piñero where he learned breast surgery and became his disciple and friend. In 1975, after an internship in the department of breast pathology at the Memorial Hospital in New York with Dr. Jerome Urban, he decided to fully devote himself to this specialty. In 1979, he founded the department of Breast Pathology at Hospital Británico, when breast services were not yet independent from those of general surgery or gynecology in the country. There he created his own school, which he nurtured with disciples selected for their personal values rather than for their academic background, which he later encouraged. And this is how this service grew, until it became one of the most important in the country and continent, keeping the same prestige, philosophy and way of working promoted by Dr. Mc Lean. This service stands out, among other things, for performing breast reconstruction after mastectomy, pioneered by Dr. Mc Lean in our country as part of the comprehensive treatment of breast cancer within breast pathology services. He trained many disciples, not only in Argentina, but also from the region and from Europe, particularly from Spain. Many colleagues came from this country to be trained by him, and they never stopped their contact with him due to the strong bonds created as scientists and friends. He stood out in mastology and was a founding member of Sociedad Argentina de Mastología and its president in 1988. He was also president of the Senologic International Society (SIS) in 1988-1989 and of the 5th World Congress of Senology, held in Buenos Aires in 1988, with the participation of the most outstanding international specialists of the time. He was director of Escuela Argentina de Mastología in 1989 and 1990 and later director of 3er Curso bienal Superior de Mastología.

He was appointed Maestro Ilustre de la Mastología Argentina in 2004 and Master of Latin American Mastology in 2022. He was also Maestro de la Medicina Argentina. He participated in more than 100 national and international congresses and courses. He was the author of 55 publications and co-author of 5 books. His awards include Academia Argentina de Cirugía award in 1983, the honor award of Hospital Británico de Buenos Aires in 1991 and Sociedad Argentina de Mastología award in 2004-2005. Besides his membership in the SIS, he was a member of the European Society of Gynecological Oncology, the Spanish Society of Senology and Breast Pathology, the Brazilian Society of Mastology, Honorary Member of the Spanish Foundation of Mastology (FEMA) and of the editorial committee of the Spanish Journal of Senology and Breast Pathology. He was also Fellow of the American College of Surgeons. And when he was close to his retirement from Hospital Británico, a time when many people think of retiring or quietly reaping what they have sown, on the contrary McLean devoted himself to his most ambitious project, the creation of Hospital Universitario Austral, in Pilar, province of Buenos Aires in 2000, together with his friends, César Bergadá, Ricardo Dodds and Enrique Malbrán, among others, and thanks to the generous collaboration of Gregorio Pérez Companc. There he was Full Professor of Surgery, Dean of the School of Biomedical Sciences and finally Professor Emeritus and created a breast center of excellence and was its director. For Mc Lean, the only way to do things was to do them right. And, once again, he dreamed big, but his achievement was greater.

In 2006, he became Full Member of Academia Nacional de Medicina de Buenos Aires. He was also a member of Academia Nacional de Ciencias Morales y Políticas and a corresponding academic member of Real Academia de Ciencias Morales y Políticas of Spain. He had a special interest in bioethics and was president of Sociedad Argentina de Ética y Moral Médica y Biológica.

In his youth he was a good athlete and loved tango. In addition to medicine, his other fascination was the countryside, and devoted himself to cattlebreeding and breeding of Percherons, his passion, for many years. He had firm moral, ethical, religious and national principles; he was a tireless worker and acted as a true apostle, taking all these values wherever he went, from his home to every social and work environment where he worked. In the family he raised with Inés, they passed on a strong genetic heritage to their 10 children, which continues in their 27 grandchildren and 3 greatgrandchildren. The imprint he left on his disciples is not genetics but is quite similar. Mc Lean left a very deep mark along his path, one that is almost impossible to get out of, even if you try to turn around.

Thanks, Patucho, for your legacy. Rest in peace.