From Serbia to Rochester A Long Way from Home
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President’s Letter
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Back Where I Belong
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“A Taste for Life” ~ Recipe for a Delicious Event
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Memorials
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Tributes
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2011 Halloween Party
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SHARING THE
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A NEWSLETTER OF GIFT OF LIFE TRANSPLANT HOUSE VOLUME 11 | NO 2 | FALL 2011
From Serbia to Rochester A Long Way from Home By Jeff Hansel
Veljko and Branka (Mihajlovic) Samolov were television journalists in Serbia before the war there in the early 1990s. Even as the country recovers from the battle wounds today, the Veljkos are fighting their own battle – against Veljko’s cancer. They’ve visited Rochester several times since 2007, when Veljko, now 65, received a heart transplant. It was two days before New Year’s Eve when they got the call that a heart was available. His own heart’s function had dipped as low as 10 percent of capacity and hovered at 24 percent. When he awoke from the transplant, his wife said, he opened his eyes and gave a thumbs-up sign. Both knew immediately that he would be OK. They’re especially thankful to their health providers and a young man from Iowa whose organs were donated after his death, including the new heart for Veljko. The past four years have been ones he would not have experienced without the transplant. Wars like the one in Serbia, as seen on television from 5,000 miles away in Rochester, can mask the effect upon individuals. During the war, Veljko and Branka lived in Prague in the Czech Republic. In the lead-up to the war, they joined other journalists in Serbia to start a pro-open government, anti-war journalism organization that published information online, and they eventually became radio news reporters for Voice of America.
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They’re proud of their work during the war because they know many in their homeland made life-or-death decisions on their reporting. Their jobs, they said, require confirmation of Veljko and Branka (Mihajlovic) Samolov facts from three sources before the information is put on the air, so residents could rely on the reports. During the war, their son, Miloch, a Serbian actor who is now 37, stayed home in Serbia after they moved to Prague. One fateful night during a Voice of America all-night war broadcast, Branka, now 62, was reporting when she read on-air that a building just 164 feet from their own building in Serbia had been bombed. Her thoughts went immediately to her son, and she looked at the control booth window, where her husband stood. He wrote on a paper and held it to the window. “He put on the paper, ‘Miloch is OK,’” Branka said. Veljko’s health improved after his transplant at Saint Marys Hospital. “It was a chance for a very, very good part of Continued on page 2
GIFT OF LIFE TRANSPLANT HOUSE • 705 Second Street, Southwest • Rochester, Minnesota 55902 • Phone: 507-288-7470 • Fax: 507-281-9888 • E-mail: office@gift-of-life.org • Web site: www.gift-of-life.org