About me

"Life is not about finding yourself. Life is creating yourself." George Bernard Shaw

This sentence could summarise my life's journey. I was born in a small, picturesque village in the West, called Moita dos Ferreiros. When I was 19, I went abroad to study and finished my Master's in Medicine at the University of Zaragoza in Spain with an average of 17 marks. But during my time at university, I didn't just dedicate myself to studying. Studying was always important to me, but I always wanted something more. If I went into medicine, it was to help others when they needed me most.

I've never neglected my human side and I've always tried to cultivate it as much as possible.

That's why for many years I was captain of my local futsal team, which won several titles at municipal level. I was also an alto and tenor saxophonist with the Sociedade Lírica Moitense.

In Zaragoza I became Dean of Students before deciding to travel the world. In reality, the journeys I made around the world were not journeys to discover the world (also...), but journeys to discover my deepest self. They were always trips with a purpose, many of them to volunteer or for professional training. The most important and interesting journey we make is within ourselves, and these trips were a way of finding and recreating myself.

As an International Volunteer I've been to Guatemala, India, Morocco and Kenya.

As part of my training as a doctor and as a human being, I studied at the University of Cologne and the University of Bonn in Germany, the University of São Paulo in Brazil, the University of Lisbon, the Santa Maria Hospital in Portugal and the National Autonomous University of Nicaragua. Throughout my training I learnt German, Spanish and English.

For me, learning a new language is absorbing a new culture. There's no better way to get to know a people's culture than through their language.

In 2016 I took the MIR exam in Spain for access to a medical speciality and also applied for it in Germany at the same time as completing a postgraduate Master's degree in Clinical Reasoning at the Alcalá de Henares University in Madrid.

A clinical director who knew me in Bonn invited me to specialise in neurology at the University Hospital in Wuppertal, where I trained as a neurologist. Those were years of great learning and contact with different realities, as I had a lot of experience in emergency, intensive and intermediate care.

The most challenging part was being part of the team that tackled COVID-19, we created a wing in the hospital solely dedicated to treating these patients. It was a huge challenge, fighting an unknown disease, but it made me grow and see life from a different perspective. I have come to value teamwork and the fight against an invisible and unknown enemy against which we never let ourselves become hopeless.

As part of my training in Neurology, I spent almost two years training in Psychiatry, six months of which were spent at Galway University Hospital in Ireland.

I returned to Germany where I spent another year in intensive care and was awarded the speciality of Intensivist.

In the meantime, as I consider communication and information to be crucial in our society, I have already written two books. One about my experiences as an international volunteer (Heart in Africa) and the other about neuropsychology (Self-Concept - Understanding the Self. Who am I?) as co-author.

I returned to Portugal out of love: love for my wife and my family. Love for my people and my main goal is to give the best of myself to others and to those who need it most.