During our October 2016 trip to Serbia (trip report), we visited Užice General Hospital and met with Dr. Aleksandra Vračarić, then deputy director of the Užice Health Center (including the hospital) and Dr. Dara Savić-Bozović, head of the Pediatrics and Neonatology Department. Užice General Hospital is the fourth largest hospital in Serbia, serving about 350,000 people in the Zlatibor district. The hospital and health center receive government funding that barely covers operational expenses (salaries, materials, etc.), and is certainly not enough for any capital equipment purchases.

The hospital was in need of defibrillator with pediatric paddles to be used in the pediatrics department. In addition, there was only one functioning ultrasound system in this entire hospital. To make things worse, the hospital has had a significant increase in the number of cases being served by the radiology department with that single ultrasound system (over 16,000 cases in 2014, and over 27,000 cases in 2015). We committed to help with both defibrillator and the ultrasound system.

Since the defibrillator was a relatively small project (the exact cost was $5044), we immediately started the project to procure it. In discussions with Dr. Vračarić, it was determined that the Nihon-Kohden TEC5631 K defibrillator would the right equipment. SAMA worked with Trivax DDO in Belgrade, a local distributor for Nihon-Kohden equipment in Serbia, to procure the defibrillator.