Professor MUDr., DrSc. Helena Tlaskalová

“What they knew and how they treated patients was an incredible role model for us. And I think it was missing then. Thanks to the professor John I was also teaching at the medical school, and I experienced the exchange after 1969. And I realized that on the contrary, there were the people in lead I remembered from the faculty at a secondary school they had no sense of empathy at all. As an example, there was an unnamed professor in the 1970s. When we went to visit the patients at the intern department, there was a lady after a stroke who could not speak and move. And he was showing right in front of her what she could not do and how affected she was - what kinds of nerves and the like. And then he said, 'Well, the horror is that her family is not at all interested in taking care of her.' He would say that in front of her and I could see her beginning to cry. She could see it, she just didn't notice. So, I thought to myself that such people should not work in the field of medicine at all.”

“I was terribly affected by the death of young people. I will never forget a guy who died of leukemia and we visited him regularly. Or a young woman who was talking to us - she was so pleasant, smiling and went to heart surgery. We said goodbye to her. After the surgery, surgeons told us that she unfortunately died. These things affected me. And I saw human suffering. And I was so impressed that I said it wasn't good to get angry because of the little things. I've always tried to put people together rather than divide them or incite hatred. It is never worth it. I think it stems from this experience of mine. And I think that the lack of tolerance in many people is really due to the fact that our generation has not had the opportunity to travel and has not seen that there is a different way of life than the ones that are here.”