By Dr. Plumb Bulku
The first part
Memorie.al / Dear readers, friends, my patients, who congratulate me and thank me at every hour of the day and night, for the work I have done and continue to do. Since some of my medical colleagues, and many well-wishers, have wisely and kindly asked to know something more about the activity of my 60-year career, I am trying to describe a little of my work as a doctor, which is a long, difficult journey. , with many obstacles, which required will, strength, dedication, faced and overcame this load.
In this modest writing, I am telling you some bits of history from my life and work, at first as a popular doctor, which I started in September of 1961, when I was only 14 years old, I started making medical visits, where I also remember the first visit of a patient who came from the city of Fier called Mina Pano and a small child from N.I.Sh. Tulla Shkozet, whose name was Ajet Cakranji, who today works and lives in France. These are my first two visits, made on the third day of school, to the Mechanical Technical School in Shkozet, Durrës, these visits were made without the help of my father, Cen Bulku.
I visited patients every day, which began to increase and I saw that they and their families were satisfied with my work, which I did with great passion, honesty and for free. After finishing school, for two years I worked at the Mechanical Agricultural Plant, as a technician-normist, but seeing that the patients kept coming and increasing, so much so that all the employees (collective) of the Plant wanted to help me, the director of the Plant Agricultural Mechanics, Mr. Sabi Cevani with his management staff, (such as the chief engineer Viktor Çaprazi, Eng. Pavllo Roka, and also the passionate of my work as a young “doctor”, Eng. Andrea Gorea), took me to work in the Technical Construction Bureau of The factory, with the sole purpose of making my work a little easier, so that I could help the many patients who needed medical help.
The meeting with Prime Minister Mehmet Shehu and his order for me to continue my studies in Medicine!
In those years, many high party cadres came to our factory and besides their work there, they looked at me and greeted me and congratulated me for the work I was doing as a doctor…! But what put the seal, so to speak, for me to go and study at the Faculty of Medicine in Tirana, was the coming to our plant to do physical work, of its former prime minister at the time, Mehmet Shehu, who also talked with the first secretary of the Party Committee of the district of Durres, Rita Marko, who fulfilled my great desire, first of all Bab Ceni, for me to start studying Medicine, since at that time and later, it was almost impossible for you to pass from the Agricultural Mechanical Technical College to the Faculty of Medicine.
In this regard, I remember a small episode, when I was visiting a young child who was crying from pain, (after having broken his hand), the director, Sabri Cevani, said to the Prime Minister as if with a smile: “Dear Prime Minister, we here at the factory we also have a doctor, look, he is the son of Baba Ceni from Shijak”. “But why doesn’t he go to study Medicine”, asked Mehmet Shehu and the director replied: “Yes, but Pullumbi has finished the Mechanical Engineering and they cannot pass him for Medicine”. “But why don’t they pass it, I also finished that high school?! From what I can see so far, this guy is a doctor. Well, well, we will do a favor to Baba Ceni, because we owe him a great debt for the humane work he does, we wanted to give him a car, just like we gave to some other doctors in known and devoted, but Bab Ceni did not accept it. Little doctor, good luck at school, and you will become like Bab Ceni, whom I have seen soaked in sweat and tired from the many visits he made to a hut built for him by the director of Sukthi Farm, Baba Sula, castile to visit the patients, who were waiting in line”, concluded his conversation, Prime Minister Mehmet Shehu, with those warm words for my father, words that also warmed me more.
After I finished the Mechanical Technical School in Shkozet (which I had started in 1961), according to the order of Prime Minister Mehmet Shehu, in 1968 I started my studies at the Faculty of Medicine in Tirana. During those years when I was in the dormitory of that faculty, patients came to visit me and I saw that they were satisfied with the service and treatment I gave them. After that, the requests to visit me were increasing and not only patients, but also some famous doctors showed the desire to get to know me closely. One of them was Prof. Dr. Petro Cani, who offered me to go to his ward, where I met other doctors, big names in Albanian medicine, such as: Dr. Besim Elezi, Dr. Luter Kreshpa, etc., and the one who helped me in my work, was the good, simple and popular man, the talented surgeon, Viktor Qereshnik, as well as several other equally excellent surgeons.
This ward (No. 3), with these excellent surgeons, led by their professor, really constituted an “artistic ensemble” of surgeons, where all the patients who passed through their hands were quite satisfied with the service the care they gave him. I mentioned these doctors, that for me they were another school, as a point of reference to strengthen discipline, simplicity and love for work, to welcome the patient in the hospital, as if they had the person of their family. This discipline and the waiting that they gave to the patients in that clinic, has remained in my memory and my conscience, during all these years of work and my professional career, which in one month, completes 60 years of work, in the service of my patients.
In 1973, I graduated from the Faculty of Medicine in Tirana
In 1973, after graduating from the Faculty of Medicine in Tirana, my long and difficult journey of my work began. After graduation, I expected to start work in Durrës, at first as a retraining doctor for patients who were operated on in Tirana. This, from the request made to me by the orthopedic doctors of Pavilion No. 4, more precisely by Prof. Dr. Panajot Boga, which he had told me in a practical lesson at the Orthopedics ward. But this request of theirs was not possible and I ended up as a doctor in the district of Mirdita. Working in the hospital of the city of Rrëshen, although in very difficult conditions for the time, was a great school and results for me, since I gained a lot professionally from this job.
There I was filled with information to wait for the many emergencies that came, from the simplest to those where the patient’s life was called into question, where always in my memory, the orders of Prof. Dr. Petro Canit, who often told us, that: “the grave of the patient”, is abdominal pain, and for the last three years in the district of Mirdita, I was in Spaç and Fan, in a very deep area, where the roads were blocked, and vehicles in difficult times remained on the road, so emergencies were carried out on stretchers, walking and for long hours. The medical emergencies with patients that I faced every day and night, strengthened me and made me to provide solutions to their health, in terms of curing and rehabilitating any kind of trauma. Also in terms of my professional development, I have participated in many local and national scientific sessions, such as: in Tirana, Mirdita, Skrapar, Erseke, etc., with various scientific, medical, and popular topics, which have been very well received by our medical colleagues, of all specialties.
My colleagues, humane doctors and dedicated to the work of patients
From these scientific references of mine, I received congratulations from our medical colleagues of all specialties, such as: Prof. Dr. Petro Cani, Prof. Dr. Petrit Kokalari, Prof. Dr. Maksut Drrasa, Dr. Veli Toto, Dr. Pascal Prodani, Prof. Dr. Pellumb Karagjozi, Dr. Miri Hoti, Dr. Petraq Xoxa, Dr. Haki Xhafa, Dr. Eqerem Enesti, Dr. Aqif Gjokutaj, Dr. Orest Sinjari, Dr. Shpetim Leka, Dr. Prokop Lala, Dr. Rushit Zusi, Dr. Llesh Rroku, Dr. Paulin Shqalsi, Dr. Viktor Qereshnik, Dr. Prof. Minella Kapo, Prof. Dr. Lluka Heqimi, Prof. Dr. Profit Cani, Dr. Artan Myrtezai, Dr. Agim Qarri, Prof. Dr. Kim Drrasa, Dr. Marak Lleshi, Dr. Sotiraq Petro, Dr. Pellumb Leskoviku, Prof. Dr. Ylli Ziçishti, Dr. Arif Hasani, and many, many other colleagues.
I take the opportunity in this article to express my friendly gratitude to those fellow doctors and employees who are no longer with us. What prompts me to emphasize something is the thanks given to me by the former Minister of Health, Llambi Ziçishti, in the hall full of doctors at the national scientific session in Mirdita, where I was giving the conclusions about the topic “Fractures that occur in the joint of the elbow”, where I made the scientific connection between ‘Theoretical Mechanics’, ‘Material Resistance’, and ‘Orthopedics’, two different schools, but which cooperated between them in theory and practice (The mechanism of these forces in Mechanics, also finds application in Orthopedics).
The first question I was asked was by the minister of that time, Llambi Zicishti, who told me: “Don’t you be an engineer”?! No, I told him, I’m a doctor, but I completed high school at the Mechanical Engineering College. “Well done,” he told me, “being a doctor and an engineer, I have never heard of such a scientific topic, where Theoretical Mechanics, Material Resistance, and Orthopedics are related.” Could you please give me this report? Yes, I answered, and as I gave it to him, everyone present in the hall stood up and applauded, he addressed the surgeon, Dr. Agim Qarri, saying: “Orthopedic, you have golden hands. I also got the experience all the more, because I was also the son of the popular doctor, Ceni of Shijaku”. After that, they greeted with applause the speech of Dr. Llesh Rrokut, who said: “Dr. Pullumbi was a doctor since he came to study to be a doctor. Many patients came to his dormitory room and were visited and treated with great success.”
With Bab Cenin and Dr. Haki Xhafen, in the clinic of the city of Shijak
At the end of 1978, I returned to work at the Shijak Hospital, since a delegation of specialist doctors insisted that Shijak needed a doctor to perform microsurgery, since the city of Shijak is very close to Durrës and Baba Ceni is in old age and in great need of Dr. The pigeon. Thus, Baba Ceni and I worked together for a year and a half at the Shijak Clinic, where we had a small room where we made visits. The corridor between the rooms where the other doctors visited was very narrow. The queue to visit the patients was very long, sometimes reaching 110-120 patients, as they came from all over Albania, even in serious condition, on stretchers.
Baba Ceni understood the difficult situation that was being created, seeing the long queues of patients, he felt that something was not going right here and in order not to hurt me with words, so wise and gentle, he left the Polyclinic and went to work in the small hallway of his house. For that period of time, we were three doctors, participating in the treatment of patients who came to the Clinic with various tumors. These doctors were: Baba Ceni, Dr. Haki Xhafa (radiologist) and me. Together we created the small clinic “Applied Popular Orthopedics” Shijak, with scientific methods, where in 1978-’79, we performed 11,700 medical visits, where from a study done by Dr. Haki Xhafa, (he extracted these numbers from the radiography he was doing), it turns out that: of these, 90% are correct from our work and 75% from other doctors. Memorie.al
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