Page 46 - Stradanje i humanizam

There were also volunteers, from Russia in particular, who registered neither with the Serbian
authorities abroad nor upon arrival in the country. They simply came and reported to the combat units or
presented themselves at one of the hospitals. Thus, there are no records on many of them. Only later,
from the memoires do we learn about some of them. For instance, about a courageous nurse Darja
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Korobkina from Peterborough who arrived in August 1914 and doctor .
Since the early days of the war the biggest professional and organisational burden fell on the District
Hospital and its doctors – Selimir Đorđević and van Tienhoven. They restlessly examined the wounded
in the reception, screening centre, provided the necessary assistance and then referred them to other
hospitals. Doctor Tienhoven identified the patients with the most complex and gravest wounds and
operated on them. Regretfully, the surgical ward in the hospital had 60 beds only but that number kept
increasing for influx of difficult cases. One night 800 casualties arrived at once. At the time only doctor
Tienhoven, nurse De Hrotte, three Serbian women and two Serbian students worked on the surgical
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ward, one of whom only was a student of medicine . In late August 1914 the second part of the
experienced medical team of doctor Tienhoven arrived from Netherlands: two male nurses and two
female nurses. Doctor Selimir Đorđević was not only a doctor in his own hospital but in all the others
too; he was manager of the District Hospital and all the auxiliary hospitals in the city.
He knew where he should send doctors, nurses, which equipment, medications, food, other
necessities at all times.
Valjevo district hospital was the centre of all developments. If one would say one was going to the
hospital, there was no doubt as to which one although there were seven others in the city. The doctors
received the wounded and the sick in the screening centre, provided first aid and referred them to other
hospitals. The hospital in Valjevo was and remained the only place for domicile population and the
newcomers where they could receive medical assistance, the only one that was not treating the soldiers
only. It had the best equipment and an X-ray that immediately arrived from Niš as it was required for
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finding the leftover pieces of ammunition in the body . Doctor Selimir Djordjević who was the
manager of the District Hospital also managed all the Auxiliary hospitals in the early days of the war.
Tirelessly, he visited one hospital after another, answered the calls to examine and treat the multitude of
newly arrived refugees, domicile population, the wounded and the sick soldiers. He was a doctor with
enormous professional and organisational capacities and a shining example to all the other medical
staff. His countenance was remembered by almost all the wounded and the sick and in the great effort of
organization of medical treatment and care; he was the key and the most important person. When the
Russian Mission arrived on 27 September 1914, doctor Avram Vinaver took over part of his worries.
The latter became manager of the Fifth Auxiliary Hospital in the building of the contemporary High
Court where the Mission worked. That Mission was headed doctor Sičev. Doctor Toma Leko was
appointed manager of the newly established Sixth hospital in the warehouse of the Drina Division and
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later doctor Aleksandar Savić assumed the duty of the manager of the Fourth Hospital in the Valjevo
Grammar School. During the Battle of Cer, doctor Jovan Stričević, Serb from Vojvodina, mobilized in
Austo-Hungarian Army, who crossed to the Serbin Army, assumed the duties of the Manager of the
Second Auxiliary Hospital. Surgeries were performed also in the Drina Military Hospital where doctor
Jordan Stajić – one of the first educated Serbian surgeons – and doctor Ljubiša Vulović worked. The
manager of that hospital was doctor Pavle Vojteh and later doctor Ljuba Stojanović. Committed and
exceeding her limits was a young Serbian doctor Draginja Babić from Valjevo who had been decorated
for her efforts and expertise in the Balkan Wars. As an experienced war doctor, as she was already the
manager of the field military hospital in Valjevo during the preceding wars, she knew a lot about battle
wounds and treatment thereof. The war had found Draginja Babić on the post of the municipal doctor so
she was in the District Hospital every day, tirelessly attending to the citizens, newcomers, the sick and
the wounded. Her care for the citizens and the patients did not stop with the provision of medical
assistance only. She suffered all their worries with them. There are records that during the epidemics of
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typhus, having returned to her home town at her own request, she not only treated but fed the patients,
brought firewood and stoked fire for them.
Taking into account their patriotic state of mind, the huge influx of the wounded could not but
mobilize the citizens of Valjevo. They established a ”Committee for Reception and Assistance to the
Wounded“ headed by Milan Matić with the members of the main committee Rista Topalović, Kosta
Marković, Milutin Dojčinović, Milan Zarić and Dimitrije Milić. Thanks to the initiative of this
Committee that gathered many citizens, provision of supplies to the wounded and the ill was organised.
The members of the Committee worked day and night at the crossroads, visited hospitals, saw the
medical trains for evacuation off and offered all they had to the wounded and the sick. The citizens
donated to the Committee and the members distributed tea, burek, fried meat, sugar, bread, bacon, fruit,
sweet plum preserves, tobacco, plum brandy, cognac… Collection of monetary donations was
organised to help numerous refugee families. The Committee was approached by anonymous
daughters and wives of the most respected citizens. Оf some only names remain: Radojka, Ljubica,
Nadežda, Vojka, Jela, Mara, Kosa Korać, Z. Zarić, D. Đuranić, miss Perka Arapović, daughters of Mr
Birčanin, V. Popović, Sava Nikolić and B. Cvetojević. The daughters of Živojin Mišić were among
them. Further to the duties to receive and see the wounded and the sick off, all of them worked in
hospitals for lack of medical staff in them. The majority had completed nursing courses or were trained
rapidly so they dressed the wounds, took care of the wounded and the sick and assisted during surgeries.
At the initiative of the Committee, the city authorities confiscated all the private barouches so as to
transport the wounded and the sick from the screening centre to hospitals and there from to the railway
station. Since the need for vehicles rapidly grew due to evacuation of the wounded to the medical train,
all the available carriages were soon taken from their owners. The Committee managed to put up a
wooden pavilion next to the railway station. Tea, soup and other food was cooked there all the time. It
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