"Memories don't fade": Moving testimony of a surgeon about the night a bomb hit the hospital

Photo: RTS/Printscreen

Dr. Goran Vasic, a general surgeon from Clinical-Hospital Center (KBC) named after Dr. Dragisa Misovic, an institution that was hit in the bombing in 1999, told RTS that it was traumatic for all employees, but that they continued working in the operating rooms when the sirens sounded and when bombs were heard falling.

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During the NATO aggression against Serbia in 1999, bombs were also raining down on healthcare institutions for 78 days. Medical staff worked under sirens, and then on May 20, 1999, at ten minutes to one in the morning, a NATO missile hit the Dr. Dragisa Misovic KBC. Seven guardsmen, three patients and a security guard were killed. The neurology ward building was destroyed, and the buildings of the Children's and Gynecology-Obstetric Clinics were damaged.

And in that situation, the patients had to be rescued. The memories of that night do not fade.

Dr. Goran Vasic says that he always remembers that period and those days reluctantly, because it was really something traumatic for everyone.

"The hospital was functioning in all segments, we suspended regular work in surgery, regularly scheduled operations, and were doing all emergency operations, so we were very often in the operating theater when the sirens would sound and when the bombs were heard falling. It didn't bother us. We were in the hall, dedicated to our work, we did what we were supposed to do, what we were trained for," adds Vesic.

They made sure, he points out, to have a minimum number of patients. "As soon as the conditions were there, we would discharge patients precisely for security reasons," says Vesic.

"On the 58th day of the bombing, at 50 minutes after midnight, a bomb fell on the neurology building itself and created a seven-meter crater. The neurology building was wiped out," Vesic remembers.

He stressed that all the women and babies from the maternity ward were evacuated as soon as possible.

"We all participated in that and they were transferred to other hospitals for further recovery," says Vasic.

(Telegraf.rs)