We are deeply saddened by the news that Mr. Vladimir Sjerobabski, MD, Head Doctor died on 29 October 2013 at the age of 81. Sjerobabski, MD, Head Doctor died in the Coronary Unit of the Department of Cardiology, University Hospital Centre Sestre milosrdnice, Zagreb, the coronary unit founded and led by him for thirty years until he retired, the hospital, which was his second home and that he loved so much. He was an outstanding physician, intellectual, erudite, an experienced teacher and a humanist, and above all beloved colleague and a good man, a great husband, father and grandfather.

Vladimir Sjerobabski, MD, Head Doctor was born on 12 January 1933 in Feketic. He graduated from the School of Medicine of the University of Zagreb in 1959. He did an internship and worked as a secondary care physician in the Vinkovci General Hospital. In 1962 he worked as a general practitioner in the industrial Outpatient clinic “Borovo”, and in 1963 he was the Head of the Borovo medical department. He specialized in internal medicine from 1965 to 1969 at the University Hospital Centre Rebro, in 1969 he passed the specialty exam and since 1970 he worked as an internal medicine specialist in the Clinic of Internal Diseases of the formerly called hospital “Dr. Mladen Stojanovic” or the University Hospital Centre Sestre milosrdnice, Zagreb. He was the Head of the first coronary unit in Croatia since its establishment in 1970, and from 1976 till his retirement he was also the Head of the Intensive Coronary Care Department. He subspecialized in cardiology and intensive medicine. He engaged in rhythmology and was one of the first doctors that implanted pacemakers in the former state. He did the entire residency program at the University Hospital Centre Sestre milosrdnice, he worked three decades there and left an indelible mark in it. He attended training courses for several times in Germany, the University Clinic Grosshadern in Munich and the Clinic in Dusseldorf.

Sjerobabski, Head Doctor unselfishly trained and educated many generations of young physicians from the whole of Croatia for decades. He was very active in the Croatian Cardiac Society and held an office of a secretary for two terms. He was a prominent member of the Croatian Medical Association, Croatian Society of Internal Doctors, Croatian Society of Intensive Medicine, European Society of Cardiologists and Academy of Medical Sciences. He was an expert consultant for cardiology at the stage of planning the University Hospital Blato, an organizer of courses in cardiopulmonary resuscitation, translated and edited a book of Dr. Safar about cardiopulmonary resuscitation. He was the author and has co-author of 70 papers, of which 14 indexed papers.

He was a great expert, but very modest, simple and accessible man, well-tempered and mild-mannered, selfeffacing. He was an excellent physician, respected among his colleagues and beloved by patients whom he helped maximally all his life. He generously shared his knowledge with younger colleagues. The hospital was his second home, and cardiology was his passion. He was an idealist, a physician and humanist in the truest sense of the word. He was not afraid of making hard decisions and readily took on responsibilities. Throughout his whole career he avoided conflicts, did no harm to anybody and could always look everybody into the eyes. He was loved by his colleagues, medical staff and patients, and we shall always remember him only by his good deeds, as a brilliant physician and a remarkable man. Although his hospital was his second home, and although he was a great worker for which his family must have suffered, Sjerobabski, Head Doctor, was a good and loyal husband, father and grandfather, and he left behind a dear wife Durda, his daughter Ines and grandchildren Tara and Grga.

His exceptional human qualities and self-sacrificing work made all of us, his younger colleagues, his hospital, the environment where he was long and successfully building his career, the city of Zagreb and Croatia indebted to him. We shall permanently remember him with a sincere and deep gratitude.