The Legacy Behind the Menno Sluijter Award

The Legacy Behind the Menno Sluijter Award

Reflections from Fleur Sluijter

Within the European Society of Regional Anaesthesia & Pain Therapy (ESRA) community, the Menno Sluijter Award recognises individuals whose work has significantly advanced the field of pain medicine. The award honours the memory and legacy of Menno Sluijter, a visionary clinician and educator whose contributions helped shape modern interventional pain practice.

For this issue of the ESRA Newsletter, the editorial team sought to explore the human story behind the award’s name. To do so, we reached out to Fleur Sluijter, Menno Sluijter’s daughter, inviting her to share personal reflections about her father—both as a physician and as a person.

Through her words, we are reminded that behind every scientific legacy stands a life of curiosity, dedication, and inspiration that continues to resonate within the medical community.

ESRA Newsletter – When you think of Menno Sluijter, what is the most vivid memory that comes to your mind—one that best captures his passion for pain medicine or education?

What impressed me most about my aunt was the genuine interest she showed in listening to others. She had a remarkable ability to pay attention to every detail and to remember even the smallest aspects of a conversation.

Another gift that many people relied upon was her extraordinary diagnostic intuition. She was often able to recognise patterns or possibilities that others had overlooked. Her careful attention to the description of symptoms meant that more than one person owed her a great deal of gratitude for identifying the cause of their illness when no one else had.

The most vivid memory was asked. However, there are more things that come to mind.

The first one is the way he lectured. It was with an admirable ease and joy in a way that you somehow had to listen to what he had to say.  His knowledge was so profound and innate to him, that sharing his passion and expertise felt like a second nature.

Furthermore he could simplify matters, no matter how complicated the subject. We have a cartoon for children in The Netherlands which is called ‘Jip en Janneke’ about a boy and a girl who have simple conversations. My father used to say: ‘If you can’t bring the matter down to a ‘Jip and Janneke’-conversation’, you don’t own the content of the matter enough.’ He owned the content and knowledge of pain medicine so well that he could easily bring it down to a simple Jip and Janneke explanation.

Then one last thing that struck me. During the last three days of his life, when he was in the hospital, he was confused and his talking didn’t make sense anymore. Then a doctor came in and asked if he had pain. ‘Pain?’, he asked. ‘No, I don’t have pain. But let me tell you about pain’ And then he started lecturing in Dutch about pain in such a crystal clear way that made total sense; not confused at all. I was completely surprised by this. Apparently, his brain had this section still in great shape and was not confused at all. Ever.

ESRA Newsletter – How did you feel during the ESRA ceremony when the award bearing his name was announced, and what did that moment represent for you and your family?

During the ceremony I felt proud and humble at the same time. My father should have been up there, not me. He deserved it, not me. But I felt honoured to announce it in his absence. And I will do everything I can to further spread his knowledge and to make sure his ideas and thoughts are brought to life and taken further into the scientific world to the benefit of patients.

ESRA Newsletter – If Menno Sluijter could speak to today’s ESRA community, what message do you believe he would want to leave for future generations of pain physicians?

My father has always been very curious and walked off the beaten tracks. He dared to be and think differently than most do. One of his favorite books was ’The road less travelled’ by Scott Peck. He surely liked the content of the book, but the title attracted him too.

As a real thinker, he could sit on a bench in the garden, stare in the distance and while smoking his pipe, think about pain, patients, scientific knowledge and other miracles of life. That’s how his ideas of applying Radiofrequency in a pulsed way (PRF) instead of continuous RF to minimize discomfort for the patient, sprung from his brain.

So for future generations I think he would want them to sometimes take a moment in today’s hectic life, sit down, stare and try to think of scientific or other matters in many different perspectives. To have an open mind and to stay curious, even when new ideas seem odd or uncomfortable.