Iita Kettunen

Croatian Vedran Stefanovic, a specialist in gynaecological diseases and high-risk pregnancies, has achieved nearly everything he has ever wanted in his career at the age of 40. He has lived in Finland for 15 years and dreams of writing a textbook in Finnish on foetal medicine some day.

A sea view of Aurinkolahti in Vuosaari opens up from his balcony. Vedran Stefanovic looks at the scenery proudly.

– There are two places I love. One is a small cove of the Adriatic in Split, the town where I was born, and the other is my home in Aurinkolahti in Vuosaari.

The elegant home of the cosmopolitan is a mixture of a Mediterranean atmosphere, African exoticism and Finnish architecture with a sauna, the size of a small bed-sitting-room. His older brother who lives in Croatia has painted a yellow mussel on the kitchen wall to remind his little brother of the delicacies of their homeland.

At the outbreak of the Croatian war in July 1991 Vedran Stefanovic was in Finland preparing his doctoral thesis on the early differentiation of the human pituitary gland. When he returned to Croatia after six months, the war was already over. He was appointed as a specialising doctor at the maternity unit of the Zagreb University Hospital.

– It was a good clinic, but I wanted to go on with my research, which was financially impossible in post-war Croatia.

That´s why Stefanovic came back to Finland in 1992 at a time when people suffered from the recession.

He didn´t intend to stay here permanently. Instead, he planned to return to Croatia later.

– If somebody had told me ten years ago I would travel to the Moon, I would have thought it was more likely than my staying in Finland.

Stefanovic continued his research here without pay. The foreign doctor didn´t even get a cleaning job. What´s more, Stefanovic had entered the country as a tourist without a permanent residence or working permit. One of his Finnish friends arranged work from him as a nude model in the graphic department of the University of Art and Design Helsinki.

– I have never shunned any kind of work. However, I didn´t tell anything to my parents in Croatia because they wouldn´t have understood.

A doctor at last

The work was poorly paid, but finally Stefanovic received both a working and residence permit. Thanks to his Finnish friends and his own persistence, he learnt the Finnish language in record time and passed a course required of foreign doctors. He also received a report on his excellent language skills and was employed as a junior house officer at the fourth Internal Medicine Clinic of Helsinki University. His salary was about 1300 Finnish marks, which equals to a little over 200 Euros per month.

– In those days a foreign national had to pay 50 percent tax on his income during the first six months, regardless of his salary. In the daytime I used to work as a doctor and in the evenings I posed as a nude model because my salary wasn´t big enough to buy food.

Then Stefanovic was employed by the Finnish Association of Mental Health as an interpreter and support person for Bosnian quota refugees. With the aid of a small grant he wrote a book together with Tarja Summa called Jugoslaviasta Suomeen (Mielenterveysseura 1994), which is a principal textbook for those working with refugees.

When Finland started receiving Bosnians who had been wounded in the war, Stefanovic was appointed as a senior physician and interpreter in a military surgery department of Orton, a private hospital.

– It was there my real career as a doctor in Finland began and I became a licensed physician. To my clients I was almost like a stepfather because I could talk to them in their own native language.

One of the few with specialist skills

Vedran Stefanovic´s interest in foetal research had been aroused during the first few years of his medical studies. He defended his doctoral thesis on the subject at Zagreb University in 1994.

In 1999 Stefanovic started working at the Women´s Clinic in Helsinki and qualified as a specialist in obstetrics and gynaecology in 2002. Currently he is working on foetal diagnostics, a demanding field, and takes care of very high-risk pregnancies and deliveries as well as carrying out prenatal diagnostic measures, such as amniocentesis and placenta punctures.

In addition to working at the Women´s Clinic, Stefanovic has a private surgery once a week. He is also a lecturer at Zagreb University in which he gives lectures a couple of times a year and a clinical lecturer in obstetrics and gynaecology at the University of Helsinki. Three years ago he was awarded as one of the three best lecturers in the medical faculty.

– I like teaching because I come from a family of teachers. To me this recognition is mentally the greatest award in my life.

In the middle of this interview Stefanovic answers the phone as one of his patients is calling. Although it´s a Friday night, he discusses matters patiently.

– I allow home calls if it´s an urgent matter. I look after my patients holistically, not just foetuses.

Vedran Stefanovic is exceptionally talented, but he has had to come a long way to carry out his dreams.

– I don´t regret it, but if someone had told me at the beginning how much I would have to drudge to reach this, I wouldn´t have ventured into this. When you choose your way, at some point it´s too late to turn back.