[wzslider autoplay=”true”]General Hospital “Prim. Dr. Abdulah Nakaš” has a long tradition. It was founded in 19th century by Topal Šerif Osman Pasha, in 1866. It was primarily an institution where soldiers were treated, but in time it opened its doors for civil patients as well. The primary hospital was designed by the famous Macedonian architect Andrija Damjanov and construction works were executed by Dalmatians Moise and Lindarević. One-story facility had nine patient rooms where 50 patients could be accommodated.
With the arrival of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, five new pavilions were constructed and capacities were significantly increased (200 beds, a morgue and an incinerator). Another pavilion was constructed between the two World Wars, thus doubling the capacities.
After the liberation of Sarajevo in 1945, the Main Military Hospital with all necessary wards, medical warehouse and garrison clinic was founded. Its capacity was 800 beds in dilapidated pavilions. The first new facility was built in 1958 for the needs of surgery, eye and ear department, laboratory and X-ray room. New adaptations followed. In November 1973 a central facility was build, and the polyclinic was completed in 1980. Capacity of the solid-staffed and technically well-equipped Hospital amounted to 420 beds. The hospital treated members of the army at the time, members of their families, as well as citizens of Sarajevo and surrounding area.
During the siege of Sarajevo, the Hospital, which came under jurisdiction of the Ministry for Health, Labor and Social Policy of RB&H under the name State Hospital Sarajevo, has not stopped working for a single hour. Although they were short in staff after the Yugoslavian National Army (JNA) and its personnel left, doctors, medical and non-medical staff put their lives in service of the citizens of Sarajevo. They risked their lives by working in these facilities, coming to work and providing help, with those facilities being bombed countless times.
The central white building was completely devastated, as well as many other pavilions. The entire work was conducted in rooms located in the ground floor and basement, so that the patients would be protected. Rooms were often in the halls, operating rooms relocated, equipment and other necessities for treatment and surgeries were improvised. They had no electricity, heating or water, however, heroes in white saved a lot of lives.
Water was brought in canisters so that it would be available during deliveries and surgeries and for patients. Aggregate was used only when they had fuel to start it, and during surgeries the rooms were lightened with lamps or candles, before the hospital received battery-powered lamps as a donation. Employees of the State Hospital were the first to use technical oxygen for anesthesia, they improvised apparatus for oxygen production, and made their own infusion solutions.
Except for being savers and heroes, employees of this institution were innovators as well. One of the innovations is alto the external fixator SARAFIX which saved thousands of arms and legs, and blood vessels. Makers of SARAFIX, Prim. Dr. Šukrija Đozić, Prim. Dr. Raib Salihefendić and engineer Enes Baralić received the golden medal “Eureka 95” for innovation of the year, as well as numerous other recognitions on world innovation fairs during 1995.
Bakir Nakaš, the war-time director of the General Hospital, highlighted that they were once without electricity for 190 days in a row, receiving between 20 and 100 wounded patients daily. They were bombed more than 200 times. “We had no working hours, but we were on duty for three, five, seven or more days, and some even lived in the hospital. Abdulah Nakaš spent 1,425 days and nights at the hospital,” Bakir Nakaš said.
After the war, the central building was reconstructed, as well as other parts of the Hospital, with the help of donors and good people. In June 2000, the Hospital met conditions to be entitled as the “Baby Friendly Hospital”, thus becoming a part of global campaign launched by The World Health Organization (WHO) and The United Nations Childrens Fund (UNICEF) which includes more than 16,000 hospitals around the world. In the same year, it changed the name to Public Institution General Hospital “Sarajevo”, and as of 2006 it bears the name General Hospital “Prim. Dr. Abdulah Nakaš” – after its employee and surgeon who saved thousands of lives during and after the war. During 2009, the Hospital became a member of Association of hospitals without cigarette smoke.
Even after the war, patients from Sarajevo and other cities in B&H are being treated in this hospital and, 150 years after its founding, its future is uncertain.
(Source: klix.ba)
