His skin was slipping, but he was returning to the flames
August 15 has been declared the Bulgarian Day of Salvation
A monument hidden under the shade of trees in front of the entrance of the regional hospital in Veliko Tarnovo is crowded with wreaths and flowers every August 15th. The ringing of the bells for the Great Mother of God mingles over the old capital with the sound of sirens and a minute of silence. Thus, the team of MOBAL “Dr. Stefan Cherkezov” celebrates each anniversary of the feat of its patron. It has been 58 years since August 15, when the young district doctor Dr. Cherkezov sacrificed his life to get the passengers out of hell on a burning bus near Gorna Oryahovitsa.
On a hot August afternoon in 1963, a bus rattled and crowded with passengers crashed into a truck and burst into flames. The young doctor of the village of Strelets, Veliko Tarnovo region, Dr. Stefan Cherkezov is traveling on the flight. He is returning from an official meeting in the district center. It’s as if fate sends the doctor to the torch bus. In a touching post about him a few days ago, Dr. Nedelya Shtonova revealed that he was
could travel with
the company car, but
gave way
of a colleague – her mother-in-law Dr. Lilyana Marinova. Dr. Cherkezov traveled straight to the door and was thrown out of the blast in the brutal accident. There are only minor injuries, but his human and medical duty prevails and he throws himself into the burning bus to save people. He flared his hair, extinguished it with his hands. The white nylon shirt he is wearing melts on his body and further aggravates the burns, but he does not stop returning to the flames. It saves 47 people.
When ambulances arrived from Veliko Tarnovo and Gorna Oryahovitsa, the 26-year-old doctor refused to be taken to hospital, despite his skin hanging in rags. Helps transport victims on stretchers to the last person.
“I went with my eldest son in the stroller to my husband, who worked in the area of the Sugar Factories in Gorna Oryahovitsa.
I was 200 meters away
the tragedy.
Suddenly they turned
rulers,
they stopped moving and I realized that something had happened. Then a man from the village of Nikolaevo in Strazhitsa, who was on the bus, said that Dr. Cherkezov had helped to the last.
He was a very good and responsive young man “, recalled in 2018 the then 78-year-old Stella Koleva. The retired X-ray technician knew Dr. Cherkezov personally and had come with a bouquet of white chrysanthemums in front of the bust at the district hospital.
Finally, the doctor-rescuer is left completely alone and walks under the hot sun to Gorna Oryahovitsa. On the way he is met by an ambulance that has returned especially for him. Arriving at the surgical ward of the hospital, he sent the doctors who rushed to him with the words: “Colleagues, leave me, I will die anyway. Watch the other patients “, says in her book” Staro Tarnovo “the researcher Todorka Nedeva from the museum in Tarnovo. Early in the morning of the next day, August 16, Dr. Stefan Cherkezov
he dies in hell
torment and in full
consciousness
By his bed is his young wife Lydia. She also witnessed his last words: “Tell your father that he did not spend his money in vain to study me; and let him be proud of me – I proved to be a real doctor “, quotes Todorka Nedeva in her research.
“He wanted to be a great doctor, but, unfortunately, he practices little. It literally burned down less than a year after it was distributed in the village of Strelets, 8 km from our native village of Vinograd, ”Georgi Panchev, Stefan Cherkezov’s cousin, told 24 Chassa. His grandmother and Stefan’s father, Todor Cherkezov, are brother and sister. The medical student lived for some time with Georgi’s family in Sofia, while his older sister Vera was finishing her apartment in the capital.
Vera was a teacher at the 6th school of Graf Ignatiev for many years. He lived at 47 Vitosha Street, and we were at №37. It was a new building and before they finished the apartment, Stefan was with us.
He studied medicine with
great desire and
it was a lot
ambitious ”,
tells George. At that time he was a student and looked with special interest at the books of his uncle Stefan. “There was a gynecology textbook – a big brick with color pictures. And I look with thirsty eyes, if I were 12 years old. He then slapped me behind the neck and said: “Isn’t it too early for you to watch these things!”, Georgi Panchev returns to his childhood.
It has been 27 years since he left Sofia and returned to the countryside after retiring as a senior driver at the Sofia Fire Brigade.
“Boyko Borissov and I were at a fire station. He was a platoon commander. Voinov was our boss. But they stayed to serve, and I retired, came to the village and I’m happy, “said the cousin.
Now willingly
tells the ancestral
history and water
journalists to the grave
of Dr. Stefan
Черкезов
to the edge on Grapes.
“His wife Lily also graduated in medicine, she was accepted without a competition after Stefan’s death.
For many years he was a lecturer and associate professor of social medicine. They have a daughter – Antonia, she is also a doctor and is in Germany.
See what they say
destiny – in Germany
married a doctor.
He got sick
from multiple sclerosis. They haven’t come to the village with their mother for a long time “, the relative said.
Unfortunately, Assoc. Prof. Lidia Cherkezova is also in poor health and has limited her contacts, say the medical board in Veliko Tarnovo.
From there they annually worship the feat of Dr. Stefan Cherkezov. There is also a monument in his native village, and in the local community center they are invited to arrange a museum corner.
Dr. Cherkezov was the first doctor, a hero of socialist labor. Since 2005, on the initiative of the Bulgarian Doctor newspaper and Dr. Totko Naidenov, the date August 15 has been declared the Day of Salvation and the medics who died in the line of duty.
– .
