The Humanist Surgeon: The Boy Who Watched Over His Brother—Dr. César Ramírez ( 1/4 )

December 19 • Circlo Podcast

Circlo Podcast

The Calling: Why the Doctor-Patient Relationship Begins with Humanity, and Not Technology.

I had the privilege of interviewing Dr. César Ramírez.

We shared a thoughtful podcast-style conversation in which he educated me — and will hopefully educate you — on a range of topics.

The purpose of this interview was simple: to grow both personally and technically.

From the first moment, I felt I wasn’t simply interviewing a surgeon, but conversing with someone who embodies the essence of what it means to live a calling. There is something grounding about speaking with him — a recognition that we share similar ideas about life, study, and how to understand the profession. I’ve been following him for years, having him as a reference and a model to follow. When my family asked how the interview went, all I could say was that I felt I had spoken with my future self. He represents the person I want to become: a surgeon who lives what he truly wants, helping countless people, especially in developing continents like Africa where he already works actively. What draws me most is what we discussed — not just the technique, but the humanity.

He is the kind of surgeon who chooses his life every day: he chooses to answer calls at four in the morning if needed, to worry about patients even on vacation, to never let go of the hand of someone he has operated on. We spoke about sacrifice, gratification, creativity in the operating room, about Africa and how we often have a mistaken vision of what is really needed there. In his way of speaking and acting, you perceive that medicine, before being science or technique, is a profoundly human act, from person to person. He defines himself — and is perceived — as a humanist surgeon-physician who accompanies patients, treats them as equals, and walks with them throughout the entire process.

Dr. César Ramírez is Chief of General and Digestive Surgery at Hospital Quirónsalud Málaga, the only surgeon in Europe accredited in six EBSQ diplomas by the UEMS, a member of the American College of Surgeons, and founder of Fundación Bisturí Solidario. In his life, medicine and solidarity are not separate paths: each operation, each gesture, is a way of returning hope to those who need it most. But what stands out even more than his achievements is his character: his humility, his continuous learning, and his belief that thinking — truly living medicine as a human calling — matters in a world that often prefers quick, easy answers. Conversations with him always leave you better than before.

Above is the full video for this section of the interview. The complete interview with all sections is available below.

Complete Interview: The Humanist Surgeon — Dr. César Ramírez

To guide this interview, I divided our conversation into four sections: Personal Life and Childlike Vision, Vision and Path, Creativity, and Reflections.

In this article, I focus on the Personal Life and Childlike Vision section. Circlo stands on the idea of becoming a better human surgeon — someone who connects, empathizes, and understands human needs while having the knowledge to save them. This section highlights his personal backstory with medicine, how his life’s path converged with surgery. Additionally, we will discuss how he defines himself and the reason behind this vision, and lastly about doctor-patient connection and interpersonal relationships.

A very personal story that will educate you in path and human connection.

Early Signs of a Calling

“The practice of medicine is an art, not a trade; a calling, not a business; a calling in which your heart will be exercised equally with your head” — Sir William Osler

I began by asking for a personal memory — an experience with a friend or a special event — of his childhood years that gave him a glimpse into his interest for medicine and surgery. More specifically, a moment that defines him as a person.

He shares with us two emotional stories. Beginning with a repeated event that occurred with his brother Óscar, who is a doctor today. His brother often had anginas and amigdalitis, so Dr. César Ramírez took care of him throughout the night, staying awake and vigilant, and communicated to his parents about his status — if he had fever or was feeling better. There he was, beginning to walk the path of care for a loved one.

Following this, he spoke about a story with his grandmother, the mother of his father, who was suffering from a uterine tumor. She was treated with chemotherapy and radiotherapy, and sadly died of an ictus. He recalls visiting her in bed, and with the innocence of a 6 or 7-year-old, optimistically telling his father that she would recover. At that age, he believed we could be cured from any problem. “I always had that vision of wanting to be an optimist of medicine and wanting to see that we believe that with medicine everything can be cured,” he reflected.

He connects this innocence we all have as children to a moment when he was awarded a prize for winning a writing competition about the province of Málaga. The interviewer asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up, and he said surgeon. To which the interviewer responded: so you want to be a doctor? And Dr. César Ramírez said: “No, no, sir, I don’t want to be a doctor, I want to be a surgeon.” At that time, oblivious to the path he had to take, he didn’t even know that to be a surgeon you had to be a doctor first.

Lastly, looking back, he reflected on another repeated event. He has a family member who is a doctor — his father’s cousin — and when they were young, every time the family had a medical issue, they had to go visit him. Meaning, they sought help externally for their most precious value: health. “I realized how important health was, that we always had to turn to another person, and that in the end, if you are a doctor, you have a great capacity to control something very important — the most important, I would say — which is health.” He says that being a doctor gives you the ability to control something so important, which others cannot control.

So combining all these stories, he lays out a clear path of why he is a doctor now.

Doctor, Surgeon, Humanist

Following this question, I wanted to see how he sees himself. This question was focused on understanding what he values and how he observes life.

So I asked: If you had to define yourself now, what three words best describe César Ramírez?

Doctor, Surgeon, Humanist.

Doctor: Any professional, whichever career one has chosen in their life, is a doctor first. He sees being a doctor as considering someone holistically, not as someone who will have a part extirpated. “You cannot be a good surgeon if you are not a good doctor. And being a good doctor implies seeing the patient as a global being who becomes ill, not as a person from whom you have to remove a piece of the body.” Always observing how to treat the patient better.

Surgeon: His largest professional value. Not as someone who extirpates body parts, but as someone integrated in multidisciplinary teams — with oncologists and radiotherapists — to observe patients globally and give them the most comprehensive approach possible to their disease.

Humanist: “I understand medicine as a science and as an art of people who help to treat people. That is, you are a person who comes to my office. I am a person who has the capacity and the learning and the experience to help you with your problem as a person.” Medicine as an art of persons to help other persons, with the importance of tightening the relationship with the patient as a doctor. “That doesn’t mean you have to completely eliminate the distance between doctor and patient. The doctor has knowledge and the patient has the problem, but you do have to shorten it — to the point where it becomes a humanistic science of people who need help from people.”

The Human Connection in Medicine

He mentions that medicine is losing this quality of human connection. With new technologies where the doctor looks at the screen before looking at the patient, it is something he is worried about not recovering. “I don’t know at what point we will be able to recover it, if it will be able to recover, and if it cannot be recovered, we have to try not to lose it so much — try not to lose it completely.”

Electronic devices are essential today to multiply our effectiveness and improve the patient-doctor relationship experience. “But they are a support. They are a support.”

“A robot can operate on you 5,000 kilometers away today, and that already exists. But the robot cannot hold your hand, give you comfort, and speak to you with the measured tone of voice that a person does, sitting by your side to explain things to you.”

The key to the patient-doctor relationship is, always: humanistic medicine.

Lesson

Speaking with Dr. César Ramírez made it clear that medicine is really about the people. Behind every diagnosis, every surgery, there is a human story — and maintaining that connection allows us to practice medicine that genuinely heals lives.

This section captures only part of our conversation, but it reflects a truth he embodies: caring for patients requires not just technical skill, but empathy, presence, and the willingness to see beyond the disease. As you continue reading the next sections of this interview, I hope you feel as inspired as I did to explore the kind of medicine that listens, accompanies, and seeks to elevate the human experience.

For the next sections of the interview, we will talk about his vision and path through medicine, his creative approach in the operating room, and reflections on knowledge he has acquired throughout his career.