In Memoriam: Prof Smail Zubcevic, MD, PhD (1958-2017)

Th ere are moments when you get caught and surprised, and when you do not realize that something has happened. First, you do not believe it because it is not meaningful and it is not fair, but then, you become aware that there is something beyond that you’re not able to control. I guess destiny, as a warning, you should recognize. Two nights ago, the heart of our Smajo stopped knocking. Th ey say easy death has to be earned, but nevertheless it was premature. Smail Zubcevic was born on 12th April 1958 in Sarajevo, where he fi nished Primary school and “Second Gymnasium‘, with the Music High School and after that Faculty of Medicine in 1984. He then worked at the Clinical Center University of Sarajevo, on Clinic for Neurosurgery, after that in “Vogosca Health Center”, and from 1989 he started to work at the Pediatric Clinic where he was working for almost three decades. In 1996 he completed his specialization in Pediatrics, and from 1996 to 1999. he was on subspecialization in Neuropathy, Epileptology and Clinical electroencephalography. During 1997 1999 he stayed in Gent (Belgium), Charleston (South Carolina), Italy, Austria and Slovenia for education in the fi eld of Neuropediatrics. Master’s thesis “Prophylactic treatment of febrile convulsions with diazepam or phenobarbital” (1997-2001) and doctoral thesis “Incidence of epilepsy in pediatric population” (2001-2006), with papers mostly in the fi eld of Neuropediatrics (over 150 papers, fi rst author or co-author, about twenty books, author of books or chapters) ranked him into a group of leading neuropediatricians in Europe. He is the founder and president of the Society of children’s neurologist of Bosnia and Herzegovina as well as a member of the European Paediatric Neurology Society, the American Academy for Cerebral Palsy and Developmental Medicine as well as the European Academy of Childhood Disability. He was also the organizer of numerous meetings and seminars, both domestic and international, coordinator of the Tempus Phare project, projects of the Federal Ministry for Neuropediatric Treatment as well as vaccination of children. For the past two years, he was also a professor of Pediatrics at the Faculty of Medicine and Faculty of Dentistry of the University of Sarajevo. It is little known that he completed two years of English Language and Literature at the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Sarajevo in 1982 and that in the recent war he was the commander of sanitary troops of the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina. All education, excellent knowledge of English language and excellent comprehension of information technology with continuous work led to a respectable knowledge and status. His modesty never emphasized all of the above mentioned abilities and achievements, and his simplicity probably did not apostrophe it as it is commonplace today. Character of non-aggression classifi ed him in the group of scientifi c workers par excellence and prominent intellectuals. Even his closest, wife Nadja, daughters Esma and Naida, mother Behija and brother Semir, and other relatives, many friends, colleagues and medical workers, did not know and are still unaware of what he did for them and for the society. We knew him as a man ready to accept new things, with an attitude, sometimes loud one, especially when patient was concerned. He was professional to the core, with a great deal of criticism and self-criticism. Th ere are two things we hardly accept. First of all as ones who were close to him, we really did not know him as much, how much we know each other, and second we are still not trying to correct generation frustration of over-indulgence and consumption, bad affi rmation, devastating war and with a lot of work without adequate satisfaction. It is hard to cope with the loss of a friend, a professor, a teacher, a humanist, an intellectual, a father, a son, a husband... It is diffi cult to handle the loss of our Smajo and make this loss at least a little bit smaller with these words...