Mario, a great man, an extraordinary doctor, a wonderful person, left us on 19 October 2019. He was born in Rome by Angelo Patricolo and Antonietta Bianchi on 30/06/1960. His father was an eminent neurosurgeon and his passion for medicine began precisely with his fatherly teachings that nourished his acute readiness as a doctor and surgeon. He graduated in medicine in Rome, and became a pediatric surgeon/urologist at the "Bambin Gesù" Children Hospital in Rome.
Since the beginning of his medical career he has been attracted by teaching and research. He moved to the United Kingdom in 2003 and worked for the most part at Norfolk and Norwich Hospital in Norwich. He married the love of his life, Karen in 2004. He decided to move to Abu Dhabi in 2007 where he remained for the rest of his life. It is here that he has become an important representative of the academic world and has worked tirelessly to promote learning and the dissemination of rehabilitation as part of managing children with neuropathic bladder and bowel. During his career, he was an active member of the International Children Continence Society and joined the World Federation for Neurorehabilitation to promote multidisciplinary care of children with neuropathic bladder and bowel internationally.
He has been a member of ICS for over 20 years and was recently elected Chairman of the Children and Young Adults' Committee. He has organised numerous national and international conferences, symposia and teaching courses. Until his last days he was actively involved in organising these events and also from his sickbed he continued the organisation of a Congress to be held in Abu Dhabi this December. Mario was a very considerate doctor, who treated his patients and their families with the utmost diligence and dedication. Being friends we often communicated through the media and I was impressed by his constant benevolent words towards people. In some visits I made to his hospital in Abu Dhabi I was always struck by the empathy he immediately knew to establish with young patients and their families and by the great respect he had in human beings. He often repeated to me ... we doctors are not superior to our young patients but we must learn a lot from them and from their suffering.
Mario is survived by his wife Karen, two daughters Bianca and Charlotte and two sons, Alex and Giorgio and 6 grandchildren. Mario will be sorely missed by his family and friends, as well as by those who knew him and held him in high esteem him. The ICS has lost not only an authoritative Opinion Leader but also and above all one of its most committed supporters.
Obituary by Mauro Cervigni on behalf of the Board of Trustees