Hospitals

In the spring of 1992, the Health Center in Stari Grad was shelled. In May 1992, the State Hospital was intensively targeted, about 200 shells fell on it during the siege. The victims were patients. The "Koševo" clinic suffered the same fate. Operating rooms and intensive care were also targeted. Hospitals were mostly targeted by anti-tank grenades that went through several rooms. Patients were moved, and surgeons often operated without electricity or water, using candles and five-liter canisters of water. The hospital received hundreds of citizens daily.

Sniper on the roof of the JNA hospital

"Some strange people in foreign uniforms came, some kind of special forces. They shot at the town from inside and outside. They blocked the building, we were in a kind of siege. We could go out, but under strong escort and after being searched so that practically nothing could be carried out or carried in. It was a very tense situation. We didn’t know how to take it. Some signs appeared in the hospital. When I saw the first rifle carried by a soldier, a sniper on the roof, I immediately called the staff of the surgical department, and said we should go to the director, that we should declare that there was no place for armed people on the roof of a hospital. My colleagues agreed. We went to the director, it was then Dr. Taušan, but he told us: 'You don’t understand anything, it’s not like that, don’t you interfere in these things, leave it to me'." - Raib Salihefendić, State Hospital / former JNA Hospital

Emergency room packed with doctors and patients

"The first morning of the first day we were attacked, 5 April, some of first aid teams couldn’t reach the Centre. The entire Clinical Centre couldn’t get there, and everyone who did manage had to do it through side streets and alleys across field and squares, by all kind of roundabout ways. They came to us thinking they’d be able to use our ambulances to take people first aid. Our central dispatch section, our whole building, was crowded with people who had managed to get there as best they could, from the centre’s staff to people who had been taken by surprise and patients who had come for haemodialysis and needed to get to the haemodialysis department. They were all mixed up here in the first aid centre. Later, I insisted that I had to have the telephone number of some kind of committee, the main SDS committee, and tried to get through to the then president Radovan Karadžić, who was a colleague, one of my generation. I didn’t get him but I got his wife Ljilja and appealed to her humanism, to ethics, to good heartedness, to the Hippocratic oath, to let us get our ambulances out to patients. About 11 o’clock I still hadn’t got any reply, but they did begin to let our vehicles through with our personnel. Of course, I didn’t manage to get Karadžić he was said to be in Belgrade. Before the attack, the First Aid Centre was at the peak of efficiency, both medically and in equipment. We had a fleet of 37 Citroen, very well equipped. They were stolen on the barricades at the very beginning. In the very first days we lost 5, either stolen or shelled, some riddled through, they took our vehicles to Kotorac down near Kula. We only had a few vehicles left and a few wrecks and we appealed to people, to anybody who knew how, to mend what were left, we managed to get a number put back in action enough to let us function." - Alija Mulaomerović, Director of the Emergency Room Network

Doctors in the besieged Sarajevo were faced with a situation that they read about during their studies and that they had not had in their experience until then. Working without electricity, water, medicines, medical aids and sanitary materials meant only one thing - inventiveness, resourcefulness, fearlessness must become their basic tools in the fight to save lives. Doctors are forced to treat previously unseen types of the most serious injuries in adults and children. Operations are performed under candles, sometimes in unbearable cold. Doctors work continuously for days or in long shifts. Although they feared for the lives of their families, doctors sometimes did not go home for days, because they were saving the lives of their fellow citizens.

New kinds of wounds

"The injuries were shocking and I think that such injuries had not been seen before nor described in medical literature. Especially since the weapons were randomly used on targets which were not of a military nature. The most characteristic were injuries to the pelvis. They were caused by deliberate sniper fire. They were diagonal injuries which included large blood vessels, small intestines, large nerves, large intestines and urogenital organs. The injuries were accompanied by extreme shock. They required exceptional experience, exceptional knowledge, exceptional skill and great commitment. Unfortunately, a great number of such injuries ended in death on the spot, a number of the injured died on arrival, and a number on the operating table or postoperatively." - Abdulah Nakaš, State Hospital / former JNA Hospital

Hospitals almost stop functioning

"I remember that in the winter period of ‘92 to ‘93, in our operating rooms the temperature was sometimes minus five Celsius. So, you can only imagine what those conditions were like. And the patients would come in mutilated, with numerous injuries and bleeding. We often saw that the whole sheet and bedclothes that we were using during the operation were soaked in blood. Now imagine how it would be for a healthy person to be placed on an operating table where the temperature is below freezing, and in addition to that, the bedclothes are wet. And so we were practically working under conditions of hibernation, as they call it in the medical profession. Perhaps this is the reason why our patients were able to stand such complicated and serious operations. There was no electricity, no heating, and we received water in a variety of different ways. To use a concrete example, at the clinic where I worked, which has an area of ten thousand square kilometres, we had one tank holding 6 thousand litres of water. This had to cover the cleaning of the entire building, the washing of the patients, the toilets, the operations, and the drinking water for the patients and staff. Water for all of these purposes had to be secured every day." - Faruk Kulenović, Trauma Clinic

What did you do in your free time? What was your occupation during the siege?

I don't know that term. I slept in the hospital for two years. When I wasn't working with children, I was working on the reanimation of seriously injured wounded in semi-intensive surgery. '92-'93. the conditions were impossible, the wounded lay in the corridors, we worked without water, and sometimes without generators. The temperature used to be up to -10 C, we turned on the generator only for operations, and sterilized surgical instruments like in the Second World War.

year of birth: 1942
profession: Paediatrician
gender: Female
city district: Centre

Oncology clinic without water, electricity, heating...

"The cancer hospital was without water or electricity. Winter, cold it was terribly difficult for the patients and for our staff. Looking at them and going through everything with them. We didn’t have any stoves but we constructed some together with the technical staff using hospital bedside tables, we all went collecting wood and did as well as we could. There was no electricity and candles were scarce. We made oil lamps we just improvised what we could. It’s difficult to explain, if you didn’t experience it, it’s difficult to put it in words. Only if you went through it you can’t talk about it you can only experience it. It was unrepeatable. The patients were cold. They slept several to a bed under several blankets and coats, in scarves wearing caps and gloves. They were terribly cold. Those who could sit or walk about would gather round the stoves where we’d all sit together and try to keep warm with anything we had that would burn. There was no water. We ate rice and beans that came from humanitarian aid. Rice in a hundred ways as they say." - Mirsada Sinanović, Oncology Clinic

Patient care was often done in semi-darkness, under candlelight... © FAMA Collection - Visual Archives 1992-1996

Hospitals almost stop functioning

"There was no such thing as normal functioning, no diagnosis, no therapy, and no operation if there was a power cut. We were left without electricity, as you know in ’92, and the hospital had about 5 megawatts of electric installation. A hospital needs a lot of electricity. At times of greatest restrictions, when there was hardly any electricity getting into the city, the hospital received about 300 kilowatts. I can tell you it was very difficult to share out that small amount so that everyone got what was absolutely essential." - Faruk Konjhodžić, Clinical Centre "Koševo"

During the siege of Sarajevo, inventions were tools for survival. The same was true for medical procedures and treatment. Among the most significant inventions is the creation of an external fixator called Sarafix. No less important is the production of the infusion solution, without which the number of deaths of wounded and sick patients would certainly have been much higher.

Bosnalijek produces infusion solutions

"We had to take the step of producing infusions. There were three types of people in the hospital in regard to this problem. I have to say that this was the only place in BH, where infusions were successfully produced. The first type claimed that it was impossible to do, so we didn’t contact them, we immediately ruled them out. The second type said we would do it, but didn’t do anything. Fortunately, we found a third type and made an arrangement with them. Produce just one millilitre of infusion and you can produce a thousand litres. And indeed, through the efforts of some people, utmost efforts, one cannot imagine the magnitude of the efforts, their significance, we managed to produce 70 thousand litres of intravenous drip solution, physiological solution, glucose, concentrated glucose, distilled water, intravenous drips for endoscopic, urology operations, then potassium solutions and many others that were needed. We managed to do all that in conditions of maximum hardship and difficulty, when there was no water, no power, and no reproduction material." - Abdulah Nakaš, State Hospital / former JNA Hospital

Splint made in seven days

"We needed external fixtures and didn’t have any. They are the best way of treating war wounds and breaks. There’s no way you can manage without them. You can use plaster, but that’s torture, it needs months and months to heal. But you can only use surgical materials; disks and screws are forbidden. Only external fixtures. We had 4 or 5 and used them up the first day. We were forced to try and do something. It was a great problem. The wounded began to arrive, and there was a lot of blood. My colleague Đozić and I wrung our hand, didn’t know what to do. We two were the only orthopaedic surgeons in the hospital. Luckily, we had with us our colleague who was an oculist Jožica Baralić. Her husband Enes Baralić was a mechanical engineer. She was helping us to change the patients’ dressings while we were operating, there were a lot to be changed, the patients were ranged like loaves, all ages, all sizes all mixed up. She saw the situation and we discussed it then she said ‘Maybe I can help you; my husband is a fine mechanical engineer; he can do all sorts of things.’ He came and we told him what we needed and drew it as well as we could, and in 2 or 3 days he brought the first fixtures. In just a week from that day, that was the end of May, and the first days of June we got them. In seven days. An innovation like that to make a new product takes years and years, needs testing, and testing again and clinical testing. In Sarajevo from idea to realization only seven days went by." - Raib Salihefendić, State Hospital

During the siege of Sarajevo, doctors took upon themselves the great responsibility of preserving the health and lives of their fellow citizens. In impossible conditions, they cured, performed operations, delivered babies, gave hope. What motivated doctors to work sometimes 24 hours a day, and even several days in a row, in one shift? How did the doctors cope with the lack of electricity, water, medicines, anaesthesia, tools for sterilizing instruments, heating? We talked about this with dr. Bakir Nakaš, infectious disease specialist and former director of the "Prim. dr. Abdulah Nakaš" General Hospital in Sarajevo.

"We were led by our decision to never give up"

Dr. Bakir Nakaš

infectious disease specialist, former director of the General Hospital "Prim. dr. Abdulah Nakaš"

Photo: Bakir Nakaš - Then (The Siege of Sarajevo 1992-96, personal archives, Milomir Kovačević) and Now (© FAMA Collection - Visual Archives 1992-1996)

In various media sources about healthcare during the siege of Sarajevo, it is often mentioned that a large number of healthcare workers immediately left the hospitals and left the city at the beginning of the siege. In such a situation, a number of doctors and other hospital staff made the decision that they must continue their work, without thinking about the conditions under which they will perform their work. What did the first days of the siege look like for you, especially that turning point when you made the decision to stay in the hospital and, together with your associates and colleagues, bear the entire burden of treatment, operations, surgical procedures, rehabilitation of patients during the siege?

Bakir Nakaš: The first days of the siege of the city found me in the position of the head of the Department for Infectious Diseases in the former Military Hospital in Sarajevo. The situation was confusing, there was not enough valid information about what was happening in and around the city. We could not leave the hospital building. In addition to employees, patients and wounded, armed formations of the then JNA were also present in it. The reception of patients was suspended. Divisions also began among employees due to different views on current events.

When the artillery fire started in the city, I decided to leave the hospital together with several colleagues. When the JNA left the hospital on May 10, most of the employees, members of the former JNA, as well as civilians serving in the JNA, left with them. Out of more than 600 employees and soldiers of the former JNA, about thirty doctors, nurses, technicians and non-medical staff remained in the hospital at that time, taking care of about fifty sick and wounded. That was a turning point when I and my colleagues, about a hundred former employees of all profiles, who had previously either voluntarily left or were forced to leave the hospital, decided to return to their jobs and re-establish the system and put the hospital into operation.

The urge to survive, the belief that we are doing the right thing, the enthusiasm and willingness and determination of everyone to work together to ensure health care in besieged Sarajevo were decisive. New ideas and solutions were born in the hopeless situations in which we found ourselves.

How did the role of doctors change during the four years of the siege? What motivated you to work sometimes 24 hours a day, and even several days in a row, in one shift? How did the other fellow doctors perceive the new situation and the almost impossible working conditions?

Bakir Nakaš: After the initial shock and disbelief due to everything that was happening, doctors and everyone else who was involved in providing health care, decided to help sick and wounded patients and made enormous efforts. Those who remained in besieged Sarajevo accepted impossible working conditions with the awareness that there was no safe place and that they could be wounded or killed at any moment. There was incredible enthusiasm, dedication and sacrifice. Thanks to this, the health care system in besieged Sarajevo gave citizens and fighters a sense of security that they would receive the necessary help in case of need. In countless cases, the citizens themselves got involved in various ways in providing help through volunteer work or by donating food, firewood, etc. in order to ensure better conditions for the work of health institutions.

There is a video statement in the FAMA collection, in which you describe how medical instruments were sterilized. At one point you say that the doctors were no longer men in white, but men in red because of the amount of blood with which their coats were soaked. Can you describe what the doctors achieved in the impossible working conditions? How did you cope with the lack of electricity, water, medicines, anaesthesia, meant for sterilizing instruments, heating?

Bakir Nakaš: Due to the number of injured and the extent and severity of the injuries, it could truly be said that the doctors were no longer men in white, but men in red due to the amount of blood with which their coats were soaked. There was a huge disparity between the conditions, or rather the non-conditions, in which the work of medical and non-medical staff took place in health institutions and outside them, and the successful results of their work.

If you ask me today how we coped with the lack of electricity, water, heating, adequate spaces and medical equipment, medicines, means for anaesthesia, sterilization, my answer would simply be "I don't know". The urge to survive, the belief that we are doing the right thing, the enthusiasm and willingness and determination of everyone to work together to ensure health care in besieged Sarajevo were decisive. New ideas and solutions were born in the hopeless situations in which we found ourselves.

Sterlization of medical instruments on wooden stoves

"It was necessary to ensure the running of the hospital, no matter what risks. That is why we went back to the 18th century. The 18th century which made it possible for us that even in such conditions we could ensure the necessary measures of sterilization and sepsis protection for our patients. One thing we can fully claim - in that period our medical staff took exams in a graduate program of classical medicine. Without any diagnostic means, without any accessories befitting the 20th and the beginning of the 21st centuries." - Bakir Nakaš, State Hospital / former JNA Hospital

How would you describe the interpersonal relationships during the siege in the hospitals? Was there space, time and strength for doctors to provide psychological support to patients? Did the doctors give each other strength in difficult moments that happened every day?

Bakir Nakaš: Interpersonal relations during the siege in hospitals were much better than today. Teamwork, mutual trust, collegiality, inventiveness and the decision not to give up helped overcome the most difficult obstacles. The relationship between doctors and patients, citizens' trust in healthcare workers, care for people, mutual support were at a much higher level.

Which workday is particularly memorable to you?

Bakir Nakaš: The massacre in Ferhadija on May 27, 1992 remained in my memory in particular. During the first days of the siege of Sarajevo, the military hospital at that time was not able to provide first aid and treatment to sick and wounded citizens of Sarajevo. Until the military hospital was abandoned by members of the JNA on May 10, 1992, the citizens of Sarajevo were sent to the Koševo Clinical Centre.

After the members of the JNA left, the citizens of Sarajevo continued to avoid going to the former military hospital due to mistrust, until the first massacre on May 27 in Ferhadija Street. A large number of wounded were sent to the Koševo Clinical Centre, and not to our hospital, which prompted me to go by ambulance to the Clinic for Orthopaedics and Traumatology and pick up a number of wounded who were waiting for treatment and help. That moment was a sign for sick and wounded citizens that treatment is possible and safe to get treated in the former Military Hospital, which reduced the flow of patients to the Koševo Clinical Center.

From today's perspective, what are you especially proud of as a doctor?

Bakir Nakaš: From today's perspective, I am especially proud, both as a doctor and as a manager, of all colleagues and employees who, with their engagement, made it possible to provide all the necessary medical care to the wounded and sick, despite the terrible destruction and the lack of elementary conditions for hospital work, and to provide the conditions for the arrival of new Sarajevo residents into this world.

Those who remained in besieged Sarajevo accepted impossible working conditions with the awareness that there was no safe place and that they could be wounded or killed at any moment. There was incredible enthusiasm, dedication and sacrifice. Thanks to this, the health care system in besieged Sarajevo gave citizens and fighters a sense of security that they would receive the necessary help in case of need.

There have been many new methods and inventions in treatment and surgery, can you tell us more about that?

Bakir Nakaš: Due to the lack of standard equipment and inadequate conditions, we were forced to adapt and improvise, but also to create original aids. It is certain that the creation and production of Sarajevo war fixator "SARAFIKS" was one of the innovations that saved many wounded from amputations and preserved their limbs. Our doctors Dr. Šukrija Đozić and Dr. Raib Salihefendić, with the help of engineer Enes Baralić, created and produced several external fixators that were in great demand due to numerous limb injuries. Thanks to this invention, several thousand patients were saved not only in Sarajevo but also in other parts of BiH. No less significant was the production of infusion solutions, without which the number of deaths of wounded and ill patients would certainly have been much higher.

Is there anything from the period of the siege of Sarajevo that you would do differently today?

Bakir Nakaš: There is not much I would do differently today than I did during that period. Without false modesty, I think we did more than could have been expected under the circumstances.

How did you spend your time when you were not in the hospital, if there was any time at all?

Bakir Nakaš: The besieged Sarajevo during the aggression defended itself with various cultural events that made it possible to survive the war days more easily. Whenever I had the chance, I visited the National Theatre, Chamber Theatre, SARTR. I have a vivid memory of the ballet performances "Bolero", not only in the National Theatre, but also on the open stage in Skenderija. We tried to ensure that our patients were not deprived of cultural events, so shows and performances were held in the hospital in which numerous cultural workers participated. Some of them were at the hospital as patients at the time.

During the siege of Sarajevo, doctors faced the most serious forms of injury, the wounding and death of their fellow citizens, long days and nights in the hospital without electricity, water, or heating. Doctors were no longer just people who treat, but those who provide comfort and give hope to every citizen of Sarajevo who was injured by a grenade or sniper, as well as to their families. What was the moment like when the decision was made that the lives of fellow citizens are more important than one's own? Which working days in the hospital are particularly memorable? We talked about this with prim. dr. sci. med. Vesna Čengić, an anaesthesiologist who spent the siege of the city in the General Hospital.

"This was my choice, to stay and do what I love"

Prim. dr. sci. med. Vesna Čengić

anesteziolog

Photo: Vesna Čengić - Then (The Siege of Sarajevo 1992-96, personal archives) and Now (personal archives)

Vesna Čengić: Life in peace is interrupted suddenly, from today to tomorrow, a completely surreal state. There was no dilemma in my head, whether to stay or leave, there was no thought about it, until the moment of the offer of an organized and safe departure from the city for my family. Sitting at the table, thinking about that possibility, my younger brother said, I'm a man, I can't go. I said, I'm a doctor, I can't go, and my mother said, I'm your mom... I'll never forget that. And later, during the entire period of the siege, there was no thought of leaving the city.

There were only few of us, but we were a good team, we loved each other, shared everything, looked after each other, worried whether we would see each other again in the next shift, whether we would stay alive on the way home or to the hospital.

Vesna Čengić: It's been a long four years, it was getting harder and harder to bear such terror, so much pain and blood. I often talked to journalists, especially at the beginning of the siege. I thought it was very important for the world to know what was happening in Sarajevo, precisely because it was hard to believe in that terrible truth, which was happening in the heart of Europe. I cried in front of the cameras of all the major world TV stations, testifying to the serious injuries of a huge number of people, but there was no reaction that I naively believed in and at that time I was angry with them, too. I must say that I did make a few friends among foreign journalists. In one situation, which I remember well, I called them and they helped with their story in the media, about the seriously wounded girl Irma, to make her evacuation to England happen.

The FAMA collection contains your video statement in which you talk about the enormous psychological pressure that doctors and medical workers were exposed to on a daily basis. Can you describe how doctors overcame emotional and psychological pressure and fear? Can you describe what the doctors achieved in the impossible working conditions? How did you cope with the lack of electricity, water, medicines, anaesthesia, means for sterilizing instruments, heating?

Vesna Čengić: I am an anaesthesiologist, fighting disease is my mission, and I could never have imagined that I would be fighting against the power and evil that comes from people, in order to save lives. Maybe that was my motivation and strength, and I believe that was the motivation of all my colleagues, we had to do everything to save them.

Each day more than 15 injured, many of whom died

"I remember January 1994 when it seemed to me that the war would never end. When simply under the psychological and emotional pressure we did our work without any problems. By then we were completely adjusted. But the fact that every day we received our friends, our neighbours, our fellow citizens whom we knew or didn’t know, that was too much, I remember my feelings when I simply couldn’t bear it any more to watch the many injured and dead people which were brought every day. When I say this, I mean those massacres which were very frequent in January. It means that every day we received at least some 15 injured people, many of whom died because they had extremely serious injuries caused most frequently by shrapnel." - Vesna Čengić, Državna bolnica

Vesna Čengić: There were no working hours, we stayed in the hospital as long as we needed, sometimes continuously for two or more days, but I must say that we never complained about being tired. There were only few of us, but we were a good team, we loved each other, shared everything, looked after each other, worried whether we would see each other again in the next shift, whether we would stay alive on the way home or to the hospital. We rejoiced at successes, saved lives and together we grieved for those we could not help, sharing the pain with their families. The hardest thing to experience was seeing one of your family members or a close friend among the wounded.

Which workday is particularly memorable to you?

Vesna Čengić: I can't explain why I remember particular events so poorly, during such a difficult, surreal and painfully long period of the siege, spending most of that time in the hospital. I don't think it's conscious, the brain decided it on its own, there are only strong emotions and images, the least of which are stories.

One such event happened one summer day. At the entrance to the emergency room, on the ground floor of the hospital courtyard, somewhat protected, where we were always on duty, we heard the sound of a vehicle. We ran out and saw that it was an open truck with only human bodies covered in blood, one on top of the other, seriously wounded in the massacre in the city, alive and dead.

We brought in all the bodies, some on stretchers, some on the floor, we examined them, checked for signs of life, the type and severity of the injury, who we could and must help first. We had to react quickly, quickly decide on the priority of care, be calm and professional, and at the same time your heart breaks. I approached the girl who was lying on the floor, she was 3 or 4 years old, she was unconscious, she had a small wound in the chest area. I started external heart massage, I massaged her chest, I did not leave her, I was trying to bring her back to life and I did not give up. Dr. Nakaš, our chief of surgery, approached me, he recognized that I was not aware of the situation, nor of my actions, that I was not reasonable, that I did not accept that the girl had been brought in mortally wounded, with no signs of life, so he gently but firmly separated me from her. That I cannot forget.

From today's perspective, what are you especially proud of as a doctor?

Vesna Čengić: How did I endure living in such surreal circumstances? I watched the children in our yards between the buildings on Marindvor, they played and laughed and rejoiced, because this is their life it belongs to them, just like that, regardless of the circumstances, it belongs to their childhood and youth. I lived the same way, that was my life at that time, we don't always choose, but this was my choice, to stay and do what I love, what I know and what is my duty now, and to be happy that I can help, to save lives from violent destruction. There was so much joy in that, misfortune alternated with happiness and I never lost hope, the future must certainly be better...

I remember one patient who had to have his leg amputated, in the second act, because during the operation, after the injury, we tried to save the leg, and we always did that. I came to talk to him, to explain to him the necessity of such a decision and prepare him for it. While I was talking to him, tears welled up in my eyes, and he, his name was Mujo, hugged me and comforted me not to worry because he was strong! There were many such and similar situations, Zijo, Nermin, Dražen... Huso had a very serious injury to his stomach and chest, at the very beginning of the siege, he was in intensive care, but at one point, while I was next to him, he suffered a cardiac arrest, my hands saved him, with external heart massage the heart started beating again, and after a month Huso was walking and went home. My patients still pass through the city and greet me, that's what I'm proud of!

Our experience is valuable for the entire human society, that is, professional associations, and we have passed it on to our colleagues from other countries at international congresses.

There have been many new methods and inventions in treatment and surgery, can you tell us more about that?

Vesna Čengić: The injuries we encountered and had to take care of, we have never seen before. We did not know what kind of severe injuries to internal organs can be caused by a small shell shrapnel or a sniper's rotating bullet. But how could we have known, on the exam in war surgery, we learned, of course, theoretically, what are the principles of caring for a war wound, but we were not ready for this experience. Thoraco-abdominal severe injuries from just one or more small shrapnel, we have never seen that. How to treat a patient who has bled due to multiple bone, soft tissue or large blood vessel injuries, and how to fight war wound infection, is a big demand and question for anaesthesiologists. The problem of how to start the anaesthesiology machine, without which we cannot introduce a patient into general anaesthesia, when there is no electricity or oxygen, we solved in our hospital with an innovation, adapting the domicile oxygen concentrator to a source of oxygen for the needs of anaesthesia. Our experience is valuable for the entire human society, that is, professional associations, and we have passed it on to our colleagues from other countries at international congresses. I must say that we regularly received compliments for the quality of the primary care of the most serious war-injured patients who were evacuated to other countries. Of course, our invention, Sarafix, an external fixator that treats open fractures of long bones, which is the primary war doctrine, and which was produced in Sarajevo during the siege, should be emphasized. We, as teams, adapted very quickly to inhumane, almost impossible working conditions, in taking care of severe war injuries, with our knowledge, will, combativeness, creativity and intelligence, which by definition is the ability to adapt to new circumstances, and that's where we were the strongest!

Is there anything from the period of the siege of Sarajevo that you would do differently today?

Vesna Čengić: No, I wouldn't do anything differently.

How did you spend your time when you were not in the hospital, if there was any time at all?

Vesna Čengić: When I wasn't in the hospital, I spent most of my time in the neighbourhood, that is, in my apartment building, that was our little world, and when I think about it, I remember it with nostalgia, because those were indelibly beautiful emotions between us.

Leaving the house was only to go to theatre plays. Haris Pašović came to the city, that was encouraging, as if he would save us! One day, in the fall of 1993, in the former Radnik cinema, the film festival began, the Sarajevo Film Festival, during the siege of the city, what joy! My brother and I went there, through the Red Cross courtyard we went out to the "open" Alipašina Street, and risking our lives we ran across it, like everyone else who went to the same place. I'm so glad that I survived that danger from a sniper bullet, entering a full cinema hall was more like a movie, because it was unreal, and I was elated.