And even more office stories

Through the doors to Dr. Castroviejo’s office passed the rich and famous, the world renowned artists and nobility of Europe, and the poorest immigrants from the South Bronx. All sat in the same examination chair and received the personal attention. The Sheik of Kuwait’s oldest son flew in with his mother to be scheduled for bilateral corneal transplants. In gratitude the Sheik’s wife came back to the office and presented both Cassy’s surgical secretary and his personal secretary with a gift—a large 18 carat gold pendant with matching chain, and to the doctor, two checks for fifty thousand dollars each, one check for each eye.

Dignitaries from Madrid and Barcelona used Cassy’s mansion as their home away from home. The great Spanish guitarist Andres Segovia would keep the doctor awake nights, when he would become restless about 3 am and begin strumming.  Those were the morning the doctor would step off his private elevator grumbling about his broken sleep. (You can watch and hear Segovia play guitar here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZEUjDoji3Y )

As I mentioned in a previous column, William F. Buckley Jr. was a patient. One day Buckley brought in a veteran who had been blinded in the Vietnam war.  The army doctors could offer him nothing but a white cane.  Cassy started a series of complex operations, removing layer after layer of scar tissue before performing corneal transplants.  The soldier was able to give up his white cane, his sight returned and he became engaged to be married.  Buckley was so thrilled by this and wanted to pay for the treatments but Cassy would not accept any payment.

When Aristotle Onassis returned to Dr. Castroviejo’s office a second time, he was very distraught. His eyelid was taped open and he had the start of myasthenia gravis, a muscle destroying disease that would eventually take his life. 

Aristotle Onassis

He was a frightened man, all his bravado gone. “Call my doctor,” he pleaded with Cassy. But Cassy said that wasn’t necessary, I know what you have. This was something even the best eye surgeon in the world could not help him with; unfortunately there was nothing anybody could do. Dr. C. then proceeded to give him a kindly lecture on altering his lifestyle: “Rest more—we are the same age; you must slow down. Stop smoking!”

It was very sad to see the powerful Aristotle Onassis helpless and scared; Cassy wrote him an encouraging letter after the visit. It showed me so clearly that money can do only so much. Cassy ended his letter with “I love you, old friend.”  A few months later Onassis was gone.

Cassy had an estate in Oyster Bay and he invited us there frequently on weekends to enjoy the pool and have lunch. 

                       Castroviejo's Oyster Bay home had a beautiful pool and occasionally my  

                                    children and I were allowed to use it on the weekends.

I mentioned to Cassy that when I was on vacation in Madrid I had spotted graffiti which read, “Everyone who reads this is ignorant except Severo Ochoa,” (Severo Ochoa was a Spanish-American physician and biochemist, and a Nobel Prize winner.) Cassy thought that was amusing and insisted I tell it to Mr. Ochoa, who was coming to Oyster Bay that very afternoon for a swim, and so I did.

One Friday afternoon I had a visit from two men who identified themselves as FBI and wanted to schedule a meeting with me the following Monday. They wouldn’t tell me what it was about and all weekend I worried about it.  It turned out to be about Castroviejo.  He had just operated on a member of Fidel Castro’s cabinet and they were questioning me about his loyalty and whether he was a communist!  He was, in fact, extremely loyal and in fact had stated when asked about this, “I don’t ask a patient about their politics, I just want to fix their eyes.”  Mind you, Cassy was no angel, and he could be a very demanding boss, and had a “bigger than life” personality, as do most famous people, but I always felt it was a honor and a privilege to work for such a talented man.