Already one year ago the terribly sad news of Dr Iqbal Mustafa sudden death hurt us, a few days before the opening of the Bali Meeting of Shock and Critical Care 2004. It seems to me that it occurred both almost yesterday and quite a long time ago already. Yesterday, because his memory is still so present in my mind that I have the feeling of having left him only a few days ago and each time I go to Jakarta or to one of the main meetings of Intensive Care I still think that I will see him the next day. But also quite a long time, since during this year we had to measure in depth the hugeness of all things that he was doing routinely. This became more and more obvious with time when we realized, all of us, that regardless of our best willing it was so difficult, not even to replace him, but only to continue what he was doing aiming to reach what he was dreaming. This is obviously true for the clinician, certainly among the ones with the best skills in Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine, but also for the teacher, the researcher and the great entrepreneur. If hopefully each of these different tasks could be achieved by the group of colleagues and close friends, from Indonesia, from Asia, as well as from all over the world, the complete picture of Dr Iqbal’s dream would be more difficult to envisage. Indeed, if patient’s care was certainly in the center of his mind, this was integrated in a broad view of human relationships regardless country, religion, race and social level, making its goal much more challenging. However, it is our duty to be guided by his exceptional height of sight in our attempts for maintaining and achieving what he initiated during his too short life. Everyday, we realize that without him things are very different and facing his challenge is much more difficult, but great ideas are characterized by their ability to continue and this is what we have to work on.
Best wishes,
Xavier Leverve
Editor-in-Chief
Xavier Leverve
