Franciscan Mihovil Sučić (1820-1865)

Fra Mihovil Sučić, born in town Livno, in the south of Bosnia and Herzegovina, studied both philosophy and theology in Venice and medical sciences in Padua where he specialized in surgery. This made him a first registered surgeon with formal surgical education in Bosnia and Herzegovina. An impressive medical library containing over 100 medical books was preserved to days among which, a particularly remarkable are anatomical atlas and encyclopedic dictionary. Franciscan Mihovil by himself composed herb based remedies using herbs which he collected in his frequent mountain excursions. He was a man devoted to his work and a philanthrope. He died of pneumonia which he caught after coming back from a distant area during a particularly bad weather and after performing a successful Cesarean section. He died as a sufferer of his unselfish love towards his patients.

Mehmed Sami Serbic (1847-1918)

was one of the “Viennese pupils”, a group of talented young men that were sent by the Topal Osman Pasha, the Governor of the Bosnian province, to Vienna and Constantinople to study medicine. He finished his studies in 1873 (facsimile of the Constantinople diploma on the left half of the picture)and returned to Bosnia. In 1874 his initiative to establish hospital “Hastahana” in Tuzla was a success and hospital was opened in autumn of 1874. When the Austro-Hungarian Empire annexed the region there were only 6 or 7 physicians in Bosnia and Herzegovina. By the new law, Serbic was allowed to practice only after recertification of diploma in Vienna in 1879.

Serbic enjoyed a great reputation in Tuzla region and is acknowledged as the founder of the first hospital in Tuzla.

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Prim. dr. Kosta Stamenković

The Founder of the Tuzla Hospital Eye (Ophthalmology) Department

After being invited by the Tuzla Hospital manager Dr. Alija Karahasanović, during the 1951, Dr. Kosta Stamenković moved to Tuzla and started his practice in Tuzla Hospital. By the year 1954, he has managed to establish the Eye Department as a part of the formal hospital structure and continued working as a Head of the Department until 1961. During his work in Tuzla, Dr. Stamenković had both ambulatory and surgical ophthalmologic practice. At the same time he was very much engaged in the field of suppression and eradication of trachoma and with the help from UNICEF he even established a regional anti-trachoma clinic in Tuzla.

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The Charter of Kulin Ban (1189) is a symbolic birth certificate of Bosnian statehood, as it is the first written document that talks of Bosnian borders (between the rivers of Drina, Sava and Una) and of the elements of the Bosnian state: its ruler, throne and political organization. The Charter was a trade agreement between Bosnia and Republic of Dubrovnik and was written in the Bosancica script.

The original is kept in Hystoric Archive in Dubrovnik, Croatia.

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With the arrival of Dr Risto Jeremic in 1904, people of Tuzla had their first surgeon at their disposal. He was soon to become the new Tuzla hospital manager. After approval provided by the authorities, in the year 1906 Dr Jeremic funded the construction of his private sanatorium on a hill named Kojsino, just above the Hospital itself. The sanatorium had 2 pavilions. The State general hospital was established in year 1919, after the merge of the County hospital and sanatorium. The sanatorium (recent photo on the cover page of this issue), had a modern equipment for that time period. Mrs. Eva Weber was the Head nurse of the sanatorium and also the instrumental operative nurse to Dr Jeremic. Round the clock care for the patients was provided by 4 nuns while a small clinical laboratory was operated by a single technician.

Prof.dr. Ismail Hadziahmetovic