"I'll never forget..."

In the spring of 1972, in some parts of SFRY, variola vera, a vicious epidemic of smallpox, raged. Death fell like a sheaf. Earth on your feet.

Putting their lives on the line, doctors Šuvaković and Kecmanović bravely traveled to the hot spot of smallpox, Đakovica, on March 17. With them, Miška Tomašević, head nurse at the Clinic for Infectious Diseases in Belgrade, and her colleague Zorica Ristić.

Miška was just getting ready to visit her parents, the prominent Beran teacher family of Radomir Tomašević. But suddenly she had to go on a difficult journey. As soon as she received the vaccine, she got on the first train. And it could happen that she doesn't get the vaccine, so she gets sick herself.

A month of fighting

- The first sixteen days were indescribably long. That's how long the incubation period lasts. And we weren't sure if the disease would pass us by - remembers Miška Tomašević. - My colleague Zorica often told me: "Miška, if I accidentally get sick, don't leave me." I must admit that I was not comfortable to travel, but since the head of the Department, Dr. Šuvaković, asked for it, I did not object...

In Prizren, at that time, four people were ill with smallpox; in Đakovica also four. Due to better conditions, patients from Prizren were transferred to the Đakovo hospital.

- I saw them through the window. They looked terrible. We only saw such patients in the photo that Professor Šuvaković brought us from India - says Miška Tomašević. - Then we went to Đakovica. In just one day, we received nineteen patients. Those were really hard hours of vigilance, long, sleepless nights. Many were healed, and many were taken from us by death.

He remembers well the patient who died first.

- His name was Jemini. We found him with three of his children. He and his youngest seven-week-old child died - says head nurse Miška. - Later, they brought his wife and other three children to the hospital...

They were difficult and dramatic moments; a month of fighting for their lives.

- The death of a sixteen-year-old boy affected me the most - Miška remembers. - His name was Vulja. He died of the so-called purpura variola. That is the most difficult case. There is no rash, but bleeding in the body. I will never forget the moment when the boy asked me, "Sister, when am I going home?" After three hours he died. He asked for a softer mattress because his lower back hurt, which is the main symptom of smallpox, and I brought him a new yoga mattress. One girl, Gita, also remained indelibly in my memory. She was in the hospital for two days and then died. She wailed because of the pain in her lower back, she begged us to massage her. And I kept massaging her…

The nights were terrible

Miška's story, and in her chestnut eyes you can see the memory and sorrow for these young people who are no longer there.

- Our days were still somehow passing by. The nights were terrible. - says Mishka. - In one such night, my nineteen-year-old young man died. And that at the moment when I was giving him plasma. I suddenly noticed that he was not breathing. His death was a real shock for us. Zorica and I said to each other: if we get sick, God grant that it will be purpura variola, from which one dies immediately. And when the sixteenth day passed, when we could already be sure that the disease had passed us by, we went to dinner to treat ourselves. There were times when everything seemed hopeless to us. Encouragement began to be born only when signs of recovery of individual patients were noticed. We have cured many. Many were healed. It was the greatest reward for our efforts, for our doctors Šuvaković and Kecmanović who put in extraordinary efforts working from seven to twenty-two hours, and often longer. Fortunately, all that has passed. It's like a bad dream. Now I feel a huge relief... The brave Montenegrin woman did not back down from the danger of getting sick herself. She received a leave of absence, came to Titograd to congratulate her sister Duška; visited her parents in tame Lušac near Ivangrad/Beran.

And then?

- I will continue my work at the Clinic for Infectious Diseases in Belgrade - says Miška. - But I am sure that I will never have such serious patients again. It was mentioned, it didn't come back...