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Oct. '93 James Mason

Surgery in Jajce Hospital

Jajce, Bosnia

Jajce was under seige. The only way into the town was by driving a long mountain road in the dark with the lights out. The Serbs would fire at the sound of the car. You'd be crawling along in the dark and a stream of .50 cal machine gun fire, with tracers, would open up in front of you. It was like a stoplight. When the stream stopped you'd move forward...because it was about to fire right where you were stopped. You'd drive forward and see it open up behind you. Every night a car would get hit and people would die. The hospital was frequently fired at by the Serbs with recoiless rifles (BST) and sometimes mortars. Soldiers wounded in battle were brought here for surgery. The African operating is Dr. Ben, originally from Ghana. He married a Bosnian woman and stayed in Yugoslavia after finishing his medical studies. I do not know the name of the doctor on the left, who went to Vitez after Jajce fell, or the woman in white. If anybody does, please contact me. Also, I'd like to know where Dr. Ben is now. I last saw him in Split, where he felt very much a refugee.


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Guest 06-Dec-2006 06:53
During my vacation in Croatia i got messed up in a pretty bad car accident. Originally, I was taken to the hospital in Mostar (Croatian side) and to my astonishment Dr. Ben come in to see how i was doing. I told him i remember seeing him from HVO vidoes. So i guess hes still working there.
Guest 03-May-2006 22:20
The woman is an anesthetics specialist doctor. She lives in a country in Scandinavia now and she is ok. I don't think she would appreciate if her name was disclosed..sry