Slovenian media recently published the news that Ognjen Gajić, a Bosnian and American intensive care physician, pulmonologist, university professor, and former member of the band Zabranjeno pušenje, is one of the leading doctors at the famous Mayo Clinic in the USA. Gajić works as a clinical informaticist and intensive care specialist in the Department of Pulmonary Medicine at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, and as a professor of medicine at the Mayo Clinic School of Medicine, where he completed his residency. He was a member of the original line-up of the Sarajevo rock group Zabranjeno fušenje during the 1980s. Interviewed by: Semra Hodžić The Mayo Clinic is one of the best hospitals in the world, so of course it is a great honor to work there, excellent doctor Ognjen Gajić told Radiosarajevo.ba, stating that two more Sarajevo students are currently professors at the Mayo Clinic—Dr. Dušica Babović-Vuksanović and others. Emir Festić. "Of course, that speaks of the quality of the education we had," said Gajić.
Gajić with the members of the then Pušenja[/caption] "As far as music is concerned, I was lucky to grow up with incredibly talented children—Sula, Neleta, Elvis, Zenita, Par... We all, in parallel with music, started studying (Sula, Sejo Sexon, and I; we were in medicine together). However, I fell in love with Professor Aleksandar Fajgelj's group. He was a great mountaineer and human being; instead of lecturing, he started to pretend to be a Nana from Turovo, who explained her stomach problems in a roundabout way. As detectives, he made medicine more attractive than rock'n'roll, and to get a ten, you had to study from the big American book of Harrison's (2,000 very thin pages). During the fourth and fifth years of medicine, I regularly spent every third night in the Sarajevo emergency room to learn as much as possible about emergency medicine. I started my specialization in pediatric surgery, and then the war broke out. From 1992-1994. I was a member of the mobile surgical team in Koševo and later in Žuča, Dobrinja, Igman, and Olovo. In September 1994, I joined my family in Zagreb, and in 1995 I immigrated to the USA, where I worked as a paramedic and got my degree certified," Gajić told our portal. Gajić told us that he was in the second year of his specialization in Brooklyn (New York Methodist Hospital) when he started working in the intensive care unit and that then he realized that this is where he belongs. a career in this new branch of medicine. In the late 1990s, the Mayo Clinic was among a small number of hospitals that provided subspecialties in critical care medicine. I applied and got it. When you come to the Mayo Clinic, the environment is fantastic, and you can quickly advance in every aspect, including clinical research. I was among the first to do research in that new field where the computer revolution began earlier than in other fields, and at the Mayo Clinic earlier than anywhere else. This allowed me to research the clinical practice of intensive care medicine in a way that was not possible before," Gajić told us. At the moment, he spends most of his time as a mentor to younger colleagues and achieves excellent results together with them. Among them are outstanding young colleagues from Dr. Peđa Kovačević from Banja Luka, Dr. Marija Kojičić from Novi Sad, and Dr. Harunisa Čubro from Sarajevo won more than ten prestigious awards, including New York Methodist Hospital (1999); Academic Clinician Award Critical Care Fellowship Program (2001); In-Training Award Winner, Society of Critical Care Medicine (2004); Presidential Citation, Critical Care Assembly (2006); Best Abstract: International Symposium on Intensive Care & Emergency Medicine (2007); CHEST Meeting Best Poster Award (2007); Epidemiology and Outcomes Specialty Award – Society of Critical Care Medicine (2008); Distinguished Mentor Award, Mayo Center for Translational Science Activities (2008); IBM Faculty Award (2009). Among the biggest challenges they face today is the hyperproduction of information. "Separating the important from the non-essential is the most important thing in medicine. The flood of information in the 21st century has made this task more difficult than ever. Part of our research is focused on the development of computer programs that filter the essential from the non-essential and thus help doctors and nurses to quickly and accurately diagnose and develop a better treatment plan," Gajić told Radiosarajevo.ba. He is very proud to have been in a cult band like Pušenje. "At the time, we didn't even realize how good it was. The new primitivism was intended as a humorous alternative to classical primitivism; unfortunately, classical primitivism won. I remember best the endless laughter as we went from concert to concert during the prophetic tours: 'We will not, we don't have our own' (1985) and 'Get to know your homeland to recognize it' (after it was released, 1986)," Gajić recalled for our portal. Today, he is in regular contact with Elvis and Zenita; he has seen several times with Sula; once he has seen and heard several times with Neleta; and via Facebook, also with Mucet. "I heard from the late Draleta several times, and I regret that I never saw him after the war," he told us. He comes to Sarajevo every year because his brother lives there with his family, godfathers, mother-in-law, and father-in-law. He often brings guests from the USA, so he occasionally "works" as a tour guide. Gajić is an active member of the Bosnian-American Academy of Sciences and Arts (BHAAAS). We asked him how he observes the situation in clinics in Bosnia and Herzegovina today and the story of the departure of medical professionals from our country. "Doctors come and go, and many are excellent. A far bigger problem in BiH and the region is the lack of nurses. Well-trained and qualified nurses are the main strength of developed hospital systems, especially intensive care. As for my field, Peđa Kovačević and colleagues are in We managed to build an intensive care unit at the Banja Luka Clinical Center, which is at the European level," commented Gajić. Gajić and I commented on the increase in the number of people suffering from allergies in BiH, but he believes that smoking is a much bigger problem in our country. "Much more must be done to enable people to quit and also to prevent young people and children from starting to smoke," Ognjen Gajić told Radiosarajevo.ba. (https://www.radiosarajevo.ba/)
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