Andrija Štampar
(an excerpt from 'Selected Papers of Andrija Štampar': "Life and Achievements of Andrija Štampar, Fighter for the Promotion of Public Health" by M.D. Grmek)

Return Home and World War I

On January 1, 1912 Dr Andrija Štampar started working as a resident at the town hospital at Karlovac. He remained at this post till August 8, 1913. He married Marija Mesnjak, with whom he had two sons and three daughters (Slobodan, Ljerka, Boris, Bosiljka and Zorka).

He dealt with general practice, even performed some minor surgeries but his eyes were turned towards social medicine. He examined the health conditions at Karlovac, and wrote an article about it in the local newspapers.

He enrolled in the 'Zbor lijecnika Hrvatske' (Croatian Medical Association), a professional organization of physicians, and published a few articles in the journal of the Association, 'Lijecnicki vjesnik'.

By a decree of the Zupan (Prefect) of the Pozega District of May 9, 1913, Štampar was appointed district health officer at Nova Gradiska, and in the middle of August he took over his new duty. As a district health officer, he became familiar with rural health problems, realized the hardship of physician's work in rural areas, and gained experience which in his later endeavours as organizer of health services proved extremely useful.

From the beginning of World War I till July 1916, Štampar was on duty as district health officer and also as assistant physician at the Red Cross Hospital at Nova Gradiska, which was used for military purposes.