Gerónimo "Gerry" Lluberas (January 7, 1956 – May 7, 2003) was a Puerto Rican physician, humanitarian, writer and composer. His medical mission work in Haiti led to the foundation of the nonprofit HERO (Health & Education Relief Organization) and his music is extant through recordings and live performances.
Life and profession
José Gerónimo Lluberas Acosta was the first of four boys born to attorney Gerónimo Lluberas-Kells and artisan Clara Acosta-Recurt. He spent his early childhood in his parents' birthplace of Ponce, Puerto Rico. The family later settled in Carolina, near San Juan, Puerto Rico. He attended Roman Catholic parochial schools, took private accordion lessons and taught himself guitar. He showed an aptitude for the natural sciences, and he was eventually to earn a doctorate in medicine at the Universidad Central del Caribe in Cayey and to pursue a career as a rheumatologist.
He married Magali Huertas Amil in 1978 and the couple adopted two children in Bogotá, Colombia: Gerónimo Orlando in 1984 and Cristina Marcela in 1987.
Lluberas led an active religious life and, through his church, organized medical missions to Haiti. His first trip attracted local and international media attention when Lluberas and his team were stranded for several days in Belle Anse after roads and bridges were washed out by Hurricane Georges. They were eventually airlifted out by helicopter.
Lluberas published research papers in an array of medical journals and also wrote fiction. He composed dozens of Christian songs and studied painting and drawing.
At age 46, Lluberas was diagnosed with "unknown primary site" cancer and began chemotherapy. He died the following year. He was interred at Borinquen Memorial Cemetery in Caguas, Puerto Rico.
Medical career
In 1976, after completing his undergraduate degree at the University of Puerto Rico in Río Piedras, Lluberas enrolled in the School of Medicine at the Universidad Central del Caribe. He was a member of the school's first graduating class, earning his MD in 1980.
He did his internship at Frankford Hospital, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; residency in Internal Medicine at the Medical College of Pennsylvania; and specialty in Rheumatology at the Veterans Administration Medical Center/University of Pennsylvania Hospital. He practiced medicine and headed the internship program at Frankford Hospital.
In 1985, he co-authored his first professional journal article, on clinical research related to gout.
In 1988, he accepted a position at the Lupus Center in Atlanta, Georgia. He later established a private practice in Marietta, Georgia and treated patients with rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, Paget's disease, ankylosing spondylitis, and Sjögren's syndrome. He was one of the first physicians to use the Prosorba column to treat rheumatoid arthritis.
He reflected his clinical experience and research interests in his professional journal writings which focused on Paget's disease, gonococcal arthritis and meningitis, pyoarthritis, pseudolupus, chronic pain and rheumatoid arthritis.
Lluberas also taught in the Nurse Practitioner Program at Kennesaw State University and was associated with Kennestone Hospital, later WellStar Kennestone .
Beginning in September 1998, Lluberas organized and led medical relief trips to Belle Anse, Haiti. During their first trip, Lluberas and his team examined about 400 patients with malnutrition, high-blood pressure, and diseases caused by poor sanitation and water pollution, and collected clinical data from 315 of these patients on hypertension prevalence.
By April 2000, Lluberas and his teams had delivered basic health care to about 2,300 people in Belle Anse, saved the life of a four-month-old girl with meningitis, and rehabilitated patients with major injuries.
Humanitarian legacy
Lluberas wrote that, "Missionary work...[is] the only way to act when one refuses to sit by and do nothing to alleviate--however slightly--the plight [of poverty and disease] of our brethren."
In late 1997, Lluberas outlined a plan for medical mission work in Belle Anse, Haiti, that included building an improvised clinic to provide pre-natal care, vaccines for childhood diseases and Hepatitis A and Hepatitis B, rehydration and eye care, and making "house calls" to local chapels. He identified the lack of safe water as the town's major underlying health care problem.