The legacy of Dr. Manuel de Jesús Díaz Hernández (June 3, 1955 - November 26, 2022)

Abstract

Dr. Manuel de Jesús Díaz Hernández was born in the municipality of Ciego de Ávila, in the former province of Camagüey, on June 3, 1955, into a middle-class family. He completed his pre-university studies in 1973, at the Secondary Education Institute in the city of Ciego de Ávila. He completed university studies at the Santiago de Cuba School of Dentistry, and graduated in 1978 with outstanding results. In 1985 he trained as a first-degree specialist in maxillofacial surgery at the Higher Institute of Medical Sciences of Camagüey. Since 1983 he was linked to medical teaching and research in his career; He collaborated in teaching the subjects Oral Surgery and Oral Medicine in the Stomatology program, until his unexpected death.

Since his graduation in 1985, Professor Manuel de Jesús Díaz Hernández worked for years at the “Captan Roberto Rodríguez Fernández” General Provincial Teaching Hospital in Morón; later – until his death – at the Provincial General Teaching Hospital “Dr. Antonio Luaces Iraola” from Ciego de Ávila. In this last center he spent the rest of his working life. He was head of the Maxillofacial Surgery Service; later, teaching coordinator of the specialty. He completed his master's degree in dental emergencies in 2007, and graduated from the second degree in the specialty of maxillofacial surgery in 2008. He obtained the main teaching category of assistant professor in 2016, and the scientific category of added researcher in 2017. In 2021 he obtained a well-deserved recognition by being named consulting professor. He belonged to the provincial chapters of the Cuban Society of Maxillofacial Surgery, the Cuban Society of Stomatology and the Cuban Society of Dermatology.

Starting in 2009, for two years, Dr. Manuel de Jesús Díaz Hernández was an internationalist collaborator in the Republic of Yemen. For which he received several awards on behalf of the students of the Faculty of Dentists of Thamar University.