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Life as Trauma: The Wartime Journals of an Anesthesiologist, by Sarah Z. Mitić
366 pages
ISBN: 978-09709198-6-1
Weight: 1.1 pounds
Dr. Sarah Z. Mitić’s powerful memoir provides eyewitness testimony of the onset of civil war that followed the breakup of the former Yugoslavia. Dr. Mitić proves to be a keen observer of civilians, soldiers, medical personnel, and children who live, work, and serve under conditions of nearly unendurable pressure and unyielding terror.
On a normal day, Dr. Mitić might find herself holding a flashlight for a surgeon during surgery because the hospital is under bombardment and the power has been knocked out; on another, she might find herself face to face with an enemy commando who is pointing a gun at her head in a hospital stairwell.
Throughout the insanity of war, Dr. Mitić upheld the Hippocratic Oath; and the Oath upheld her. Her observations of people living under constant danger lead her to reflect: My life does not have a purpose: it is a struggle for survival. I was exhilarated and over-performed on the front lines. Wherever death forms a black background, life there etches its clear white lines in a foreground figure. This is the only pure, moral act: fighting for life.
Review
A war doctor shares her battlefront journals of aiding military and civilian casualties during the 1990s Balkan wars.
Belgrade-born Serbian physician, anesthesiologist, and debut author Mitić’s time as a trauma physician after the historic breakup of Yugoslavia is on brilliant display in these meticulous journals. Her journey began when she heard about the war in Yugoslavia while vacationing with her husband and two small daughters in Greece in 1991. The people in Krajina are fighting for their lives and they need help desperately, wrote the determined Mitić, who rushed home to Smederevo to make plans to travel to the war-torn region of Knin even though her mother and brother both disapproved. She arrived in Knin the next year and began working immediately at a hospital where the wounded, the dying, and the dead are arriving from all directions. At this early point in Mitic’s powerful narrative, she begins incorporating stories and profiles of the medical rescue staff and of the grisly casualties. As explosions reverberated throughout the region, and civilian anger and confusion at the disintegrating multinational army seethed, she saved lives Croatian children, countless anguished soldiers, a suicidal young mother. Her humanitarian determination kept her working in the hospital despite exhaustion and sleep deprivation. Further travels brought her to a Kosovo clinic, where there was tension with arrogant Albanian staff; and to central Croatia, where life [was] disappearing fast. Mitić struggled to manage casualties while ensuring her own safety, harrowingly depicted in an account of an assault by an agitated sniper. The final section finds the author back at home dealing with a catastrophic personal tragedy. At times, the book’s graphic depiction of violence and bloodshed can be arduous to read. However, Mitić shows a knack for relating vivid details of the wounded, of families suffering, and of her devoted colleagues. She also unflinchingly sketches her own extended family’s haunted history. Readers interested in the strife and unrest of the Balkan region, its divergent politics and populations, and the plights of its refugees will find Mitić’s narrative illuminating.
A commanding chronicle of focused leadership and admirable humanity.—Kirkus Reviews
About the Author
Dr. Sarah Z. Mitić is an anesthesiologist who served as a volunteer on battle fronts in Knin and Glina, and in Priština.
366 pages
ISBN: 978-09709198-6-1
Weight: 1.1 pounds
Dr. Sarah Z. Mitić’s powerful memoir provides eyewitness testimony of the onset of civil war that followed the breakup of the former Yugoslavia. Dr. Mitić proves to be a keen observer of civilians, soldiers, medical personnel, and children who live, work, and serve under conditions of nearly unendurable pressure and unyielding terror.
On a normal day, Dr. Mitić might find herself holding a flashlight for a surgeon during surgery because the hospital is under bombardment and the power has been knocked out; on another, she might find herself face to face with an enemy commando who is pointing a gun at her head in a hospital stairwell.
Throughout the insanity of war, Dr. Mitić upheld the Hippocratic Oath; and the Oath upheld her. Her observations of people living under constant danger lead her to reflect: My life does not have a purpose: it is a struggle for survival. I was exhilarated and over-performed on the front lines. Wherever death forms a black background, life there etches its clear white lines in a foreground figure. This is the only pure, moral act: fighting for life.
Review
A war doctor shares her battlefront journals of aiding military and civilian casualties during the 1990s Balkan wars.
Belgrade-born Serbian physician, anesthesiologist, and debut author Mitić’s time as a trauma physician after the historic breakup of Yugoslavia is on brilliant display in these meticulous journals. Her journey began when she heard about the war in Yugoslavia while vacationing with her husband and two small daughters in Greece in 1991. The people in Krajina are fighting for their lives and they need help desperately, wrote the determined Mitić, who rushed home to Smederevo to make plans to travel to the war-torn region of Knin even though her mother and brother both disapproved. She arrived in Knin the next year and began working immediately at a hospital where the wounded, the dying, and the dead are arriving from all directions. At this early point in Mitic’s powerful narrative, she begins incorporating stories and profiles of the medical rescue staff and of the grisly casualties. As explosions reverberated throughout the region, and civilian anger and confusion at the disintegrating multinational army seethed, she saved lives Croatian children, countless anguished soldiers, a suicidal young mother. Her humanitarian determination kept her working in the hospital despite exhaustion and sleep deprivation. Further travels brought her to a Kosovo clinic, where there was tension with arrogant Albanian staff; and to central Croatia, where life [was] disappearing fast. Mitić struggled to manage casualties while ensuring her own safety, harrowingly depicted in an account of an assault by an agitated sniper. The final section finds the author back at home dealing with a catastrophic personal tragedy. At times, the book’s graphic depiction of violence and bloodshed can be arduous to read. However, Mitić shows a knack for relating vivid details of the wounded, of families suffering, and of her devoted colleagues. She also unflinchingly sketches her own extended family’s haunted history. Readers interested in the strife and unrest of the Balkan region, its divergent politics and populations, and the plights of its refugees will find Mitić’s narrative illuminating.
A commanding chronicle of focused leadership and admirable humanity.—Kirkus Reviews
About the Author
Dr. Sarah Z. Mitić is an anesthesiologist who served as a volunteer on battle fronts in Knin and Glina, and in Priština.