Rafael López Nussa

Education After completing his schooling years and graduating from high school in Puerto Rico, López Nussa entered college and graduated with a degree in medicine from Georgetown University School of Medicine in 1906. He graduated with specialization from the New York Post Graduate Medical School in 1913, and from the Chicago Laboratory of Surgical Technique in 1916. In 1916 he performed a delicate cardiac surgical procedure at Hospital Tricoche in Ponce; it is so registered in the records of the Puerto Rico Medical Association as the first such procedure performed in Puerto Rico. In 1928, he was president of Ponce School Board. He was also president of the Ponce Rotary Club, vice-president of the Puerto Rico Medical Association, member of the American Board of Surgeons, and the physician for the Ponce Firefighters Corps.

Death López Nussa died in San Juan on 3 March 1943.

Legacy There is a public housing developments in Ponce named after Lopez Nussa. He is also recognized as one of Ponce's notable physicians at the Park of the Illustrious Ponce Citizens. In San Juan, the municipal hospital is named in his honor. In Ponce, there is also a school named in his memory.