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My first job was as a chief doctor of the children's nursery 'Racho Angelov'. It included 70 children and staff - nurses, a pedagogue, orderlies and me. My whole life was devoted to this nursery. It operated during the week and children were taken home during the weekends. Everybody living in the Knyazhevo living estate knew me. At that time Prof. Kolarov was the director of the Pediatrics Institute. One day the institute management came to see how we worked. They liked everything and invited me to work in the institute. After five years of work in the nursery, I went to the Pediatrics Institute as head of the physiological ward. I worked in the institute from 1957 to my retirement.
I have very nice memories from my work. I had a lot of night shifts. I saved a lot of children. Even now parents stop me on the street thanking me for saving their child, which is really a rewarding experience. One night shift there was an earthquake - I can't remember the year - and it was very frightening. I was the only doctor on duty and I was wondering what to do with all those 300 children, who were currently hospitalized. The nurses couldn't take care of more than two or three children at the same time. We had children in incubators - in the ward for prematurely born children. They couldn't be moved outside. All the other children were sleeping. I could do nothing but go around all wards and departments and tell the nurses to stay by the children and do nothing else so that we could react fast if the moment came. It was a scary night. I will never forget it, because it was one of those moments when you don't know how to act. I never gave up in my work. I've had many professional awards - I also have the Order of St. St. Cyril and Methodius - Second Degree. I have donated blood for free every year and have been awarded for that too. On the whole, I was quite brave.
I have very nice memories from my work. I had a lot of night shifts. I saved a lot of children. Even now parents stop me on the street thanking me for saving their child, which is really a rewarding experience. One night shift there was an earthquake - I can't remember the year - and it was very frightening. I was the only doctor on duty and I was wondering what to do with all those 300 children, who were currently hospitalized. The nurses couldn't take care of more than two or three children at the same time. We had children in incubators - in the ward for prematurely born children. They couldn't be moved outside. All the other children were sleeping. I could do nothing but go around all wards and departments and tell the nurses to stay by the children and do nothing else so that we could react fast if the moment came. It was a scary night. I will never forget it, because it was one of those moments when you don't know how to act. I never gave up in my work. I've had many professional awards - I also have the Order of St. St. Cyril and Methodius - Second Degree. I have donated blood for free every year and have been awarded for that too. On the whole, I was quite brave.
Location
Bulgaria
Interview
sophie pinkas