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Serbian American Medical Association ��Fundraising Dinner�for �Užice Hospital Nephrology Unit

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Serbian American Medical Association

SAMA brings together people who wish to help improve health care conditions in Serbia and the Balkans

SAMA is entirely supported by volunteers and private donations

SAMA focuses on primary care and donates equipment, builds infrastructure, and sponsors education

SAMA is transparent and all activities can be followed on www.serbianama.org

For every dollar received in donation, less than 3% is lost in overhead costs

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Serbian American Medical Association

$826,000 donated to improve health care in Serbia and Bosnia-Hercegovina

Helped more than 50 municipalities

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Serbian American Medical Association

Serbian government is investing in healthcare

Belgrade

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Serbian American Medical Association

Serbian government is investing in healthcare

Novi Sad

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Serbian American Medical Association

Serbian government is investing in healthcare

Nis

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Serbian American Medical Association

…. but still a long way to go

Clinic for Infectious Disease, Belgrade

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Serbian American Medical Association

…. still a long way to go

Clinic for Infectious Disease, Belgrade

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Serbian American Medical Association

…. still a long way to go

Clinic for Infectious Disease, Belgrade

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Serbian American Medical Association

…. still a long way to go

Clinic for Infectious Disease, Belgrade

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Serbian American Medical Association

…. still a long way to go

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Serbian American Medical Association

…. still a long way to go

Internal Medicine, Pancevo

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Serbian American Medical Association

… what has SAMA done

Psychiatric Hospital Laza Lazarevic, Belgrade

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Serbian American Medical Association

Psychiatric Hospital Laza Lazarevic, Belgrade

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Serbian American Medical Association

Psychiatric Hospital Laza Lazarevic, Belgrade

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Serbian American Medical Association

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Serbian American Medical Association

Psychiatric Hospital Laza Lazarevic, Belgrade

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Serbian American Medical Association

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Serbian American Medical Association

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Serbian American Medical Association

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Serbian American Medical Association

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Serbian American Medical Association

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Serbian American Medical Association

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Serbian American Medical Association

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Serbian American Medical Association

…. still a long way to go

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Serbian American Medical Association

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Serbian American Medical Association

…. still a long way to go

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Serbian American Medical Association

Donations Completed in 2021

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Serbian American Medical Association

Donations Completed in 2021

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Serbian American Medical Association

Projects in Progress

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Serbian American Medical Association

Projects under consideration

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�Ivanjica

40,000 inhabitants.

40% living in town of Ivanjica

High school 40%, higher education 7%

Average age ~40-year-old

Bad economic conditions

Main industries: Agriculture and forestry

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�Ivanjica

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�Ivanjica Health Center

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Serbian American Medical Association

The only working defibrillator – the electrode is taped to the body!!!!

There were 2 ECGs in urgent care department – both with flaky cables !!!

Donation to Ivanjica Health Center – September 2021

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Serbian American Medical Association

Donation to Ivanjica Health Center – September 2021

Donated:

Schiller Defigard HD7 defibrillator
E65 Biolight 12 channel ECG
2 Luxascope Auris otoscopes
4 Erka Plus BPMs

Total value approx. $10,000

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Serbian American Medical Association

Donation to Ivanjica Health Center – September 2021

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Serbian American Medical Association

Why do we need your help?

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�Ivanjica Health Center

“Stacionar”

Ivanjica is a relatively small town (population around 40,000) located in central Serbia that is surrounded by mountains. Perhaps because of its difficult access, or because of politics, this city has received no major investments for decades, and this can easily be seen when looking at their health center (HC).

During our visit to Ivanjica we met with Dr Nikola Karapetrovic, the newly appointed director of the HC, and Dr. Nada Ivanuša, Chief of the urgent care department. Dr. Karapetrovic is a young and enthusiastic physician who clearly wishes to change the situation. Dr Ivanuša is an experienced physician who leads one of the most important (if not the most important) department in the HC. Unfortunately, the physicians in this HC are not well equipped and have very limited ability to make a diagnosis or treat. For example, the whole place is equipped only with one defibrillator that is semi-operational and often "on the road" accompanying patients being transported to regional hospitals (they probably lose 1-2 patient every month because of their inability to diagnosis and treat irregular heart rates). There are also lacking ultrasounds, EKG, computers, etc. From Western medicine perspective, this is truly medicine from 60 years ago.

Except for the hemodialysis center which has recently been built with donations from the Danish government, the hospital buildings are old and in significant need for repair. For example, the main hospitals building, which was built in the 80s, has a leaky roof and no heating or insulation. It is so bad that only the ground-floor is currently being used! Their in-patient department that has about 30-40 beds is in very bad shape, starting with the beds and mattresses that have not been replaced for more than 30-40 years, but also floors, walls etc.

Before our returning to the US, we were able to purchase and donate what was vital to them: a state-of-the-art defibrillator, a new EKG machine and couple of basic medical instruments (otoscope and manometers, etc). This donation was worth a little more than 10,000$.

Now, we would like to help them and set them up with what we believe would make a tremendous impact. The HC needs 3-4 additional EKGs, an additional defibrillator and couple of aspirators/suctioning device. We would also like to replace their beds and mattresses, as well as potentially fix the infrastructure for the in-patient ward (floors, walls, windows, doors, toilets). The estimated cost for this project is between 30 and 40K.

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�Ivanjica Health Center

We narrowed it down to renovation of the “stacionar”, part of the HC offering both, palliative care, and hospital therapy to long term patients. It is very critical for operation of the HC in Ivanjica due to geographical location and distance to the Cacak Hospital (over 40km on poor quality roads over mountain Jelica).

The building itself is the original Ivanjica hospital built in 1920s. It was renovated back in 1975, and very little was invested in subsequent maintenance. We hope photos tell the story.

The “stacionar” is located on the first floor of the building. On the ground floor there is urgent care department, where windows and partially floor were replaced probably 15-20 years back.

The scope of the project would be to replace windows and doors, replace floors, provide hot water piping to hospital rooms ( there is only cold water now), do necessary updates on the toilets and showers, paint, and finally replace all the furniture with regular hospital beds (total of 40). It would be nice to expand door openings, and install rolling doors rather than traditional ones, allowing patients to be moved between the rooms in their bad, rather than having to move them on the stretcher etc.

The scope as listed above could easily cost above $100k, and we asked local contractor from Uzice (Branko’s friend Dušan Popadić) to prepare project proposal with estimates so that we can due diligence and correctly scope the actual project. We are awaiting for his estimates at the moment.

We know that 40 new hospital beds with mattresses and night tables will cost us about $36k.

Our plan was to present project proposal to you on Nov 9th, potentially before the fundraiser dinner, or maybe in the morning of the 10th.

In addition to this project, the HC Ivanjica needs one more defibrillator, 3-4 ECGs, 2 aspirators, and number of desktop computers. We estimate the cost of this equipment to be in the range of $25-30k, and we hoped to raise most of these funds at the dinner.

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�Ivanjica Health Center

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�Ivanjica Health Center

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�Ivanjica Health Center

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�Ivanjica Health Center

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�Ivanjica Health Center

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�Ivanjica Health Center

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�Ivanjica Health Center

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�Ivanjica Health Center

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�Ivanjica Health Center

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�Ivanjica Health Center

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�Ivanjica Health Center

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�Ivanjica Health Center

Estimate for remodeling work (all numbers in RSD)

Approximately $110k USD

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�Ivanjica Health Center

Estimate for new patient furniture

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�Ivanjica Health Center

Estimate for additional needed medical equipment

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Serbian American Medical Association

Thank you all for your attention tonight.

A special thank you to Branko Palikuća and Duke Petrovich for their generosity and support.