President of the Brazilian Clinical Oncology Society-region of São Paulo
Nise Hitomi Yamaguchi is a 45-year-old physician who takes care of cancer and AIDS patients. She has lived in Arlesheim and Filderstadt in 1983 doing studies in antroposophical medicine and since that time has taken care of more than 5000 patients in Brazil, where she is located.
She has Master and PhD Universitary degrees, has published several articles in cancer journals, she directs cancer organizations (she serves as the actual President of the Brazilian Clinical Oncology Society-region of São Paulo) and participates in several non-profit movements for the improvement of health care for poor populations. She is divorced and has two children, a 10 year old boy and a 16 years old girl, a Waldorf student
Interview with Dr. Nise Hitomi Yamaguchi
at the Connect conference in Switzerland, 2005
text: ALINE, STIAN
foto: STIAN
Aline: Are you Brazilian?
Nise: Yes, I am Brazilian but both of my parents are Japanese.
A: Did you grow up in Brazil?
N: Yes I grew up in Brazil, but I did not attend a Waldorf school, even though my mother was a Waldorf teacher. I studied anthroposophical medicine 20 years ago in Germany at the Filder-Clinic. I also came here to the Lukas Seminar and worked at Weleda before I went back to Brazil. In Brazil I have been working at the universities and in the society, applying all the things that I had learnt here. So, for example, with my patients I work with art, poetry and music as therapy.
In the anthroposophical medicine there is also this ”Abschied nehmen”, a certain way to say goodbye. Normally we do this after someone has passed away, we sit down and talk about what this person did during his lifetime – what importance he or she had for us and so on. Even before someone is passing away, we sit around him or her and everybody says something about this person, what he or she has done in life that is good and gave it a meaning. We show gratitude towards this person so that he or she does not feel that they are useless or meaningless, we want them to feel and experience that we all have an impact on each other’s lives. That’s very important!
A: Do you have children? Are your children already adults?
N: I have a 16-year-old daughter and a 10-year-old son, and I have one stepdaughter, she’s 25, and in fact I took care of her mother for 7 years.
My stepdaughter has a child as well so I try to spend most of my time together with them and ever since the child was two months old they have been travelling with me all over Brazil. That’s the least I can do and it’s not enough – I am always in debt to somebody, (laughs) that’s me, always in debt. But I try to do the best I can for my patients. Everybody always wants to be together, for birthdays, parties and so on. To find the time for this and be able just to sit and relax for a day is very difficult. So I need to have a lot of assistants. I have 5 physicians that work with me and several nurses, and a driver and two maids at home. I do have a structure, but even then it’s not enough.
A: You work with cancer patients. How does this affect you?
N: I learn a lot from them and it gives me a very important perspective on life. Since we are dealing with the limits and borders of human life – the fact that everyone knows that they are here on earth for a limited time, but always tend to forget or ignore this fact. This makes me more present and I really try to live in the present the best way I can. My patients have so much inner strength, their strength for surviving. You know – this is a very strong impression - the feeling that they give me is that they are fighting for their lives and that they are actually in charge of that possibility.
Another impact this has on my life is that it is an epidemic situation, where I have more patients than I can treat at the moment. So for example, on the day I left Brazil for this conference I was in Baire for a meeting, I ran here and there, went to their hospital, into my office and all over the place – just rushing. I arrived at the airport just 40 minutes before the flight took of. So it is always very difficult when you have more things to do than you have time for.
A: Thank you for having you here.
