Primarius Dr. Sead Basic, Doctor of Orthopedics and Traumatology, was doctor on call on the 5th of February 1994 in the former Army hospital in Sarajevo when a shell fired from the position of the Army of RS killed 68 and injured 144 people on Markale market. Dr. Basic said that was the day that marked his medical career.
At the time of the explosion at the Markale market, Dr. Basic was on call in the hospital.
“I was in the hospital that day. We were working normally. Somewhere around noon, we heard a few shells. After two years of the war, when we would hear a few explosions of shells, we would immediately start to fear, because we knew that it was dangerous. People had to live in Sarajevo, had to go to get water, to get wood etc. And when these sudden shells would fall, it would ended up with most of the dead and wounded. Very soon after that, we heard the sirens, cars, screaming, crying, yelling, a chaos in general,” recalled Basic.
On that day, more than 60 injured people was brought in the Military hospital, and about five of them lost the battle for their lives.
Upon the arrival, two people were already dead. Soon after that, two or three of them also came in very serious condition and passed away,” said Basic.
After they took care of all the wounded, they opened all the operating rooms, from which he came out early in the morning of the next day and, as he said, he did not know where to go.
“I was so empty, emotionally exhausted … I had a body that was walking, but I had no feeling, just a gap in the bottom of the soul. I was thinking why do we need this, why these people, why a child who was just passing by that place … I could not explain it to myself. It is a feeling that I cannot explain even today. At that moment, I was just thinking how to help people,” said Basic.
After the war, the 5th of February has been declared as the Remembrance Day for all the citizens of Sarajevo who were killed from 1992 to 1995.
(Source: faktor.ba)
