Vladan Radoman


Vladan Radoman was a Serbian physician and writer. He grew up in his native country, with both his parents and his brother. He studied medicine in Belgrade.

Biography

In 1963, he settled in Paris, France. He began his medical studies again, his Yugoslav diploma not being recognized. He then became an anesthetist-reanimator.
In 1967, the Biafran war began as a result of the secession of the eastern region of Nigeria, which proclaimed itself the Republic of Biafra. With government troops carrying out a land and sea blockade, the region was plunged into famine, resulting in an estimated one to two million deaths. This war was widely publicized at the international level, which will push doctors to go and help the refugees. He then went on a mission with other French doctors: Marcel Delcourt, Max Recamier, Gérard Pigeon, Bernard Kouchner, Raymond Borel, Jean Cabrol, Jean-Michel Wild, Pascal Grellety Bosviel, Jacques Bérés, Gérard Illiouz, Philippe Bernier,, and Louis Schittly.
This war was at the origin of the foundation of Médecins sans frontières in 1971.
On the occasion of Operation "A Boat for Vietnam" in 1979, Bernard Kouchner wanted to charter a boat with doctors and journalists to testify to the violations of Human Rights in that country. He also wanted to evacuate the Vietnamese who had fled their communist country. There was a violent quarrel at the origin of a split within the management of MSF who considered the operation too media oriented. Bernard Kouchner then left MSF definitively and created the organization Médecins du monde with fifteen other doctors in 1980.
In 1982, the writer released his first book: Un pays en exil, then two years later Le Ravin which was awarded both the Prix Sainte-Beuve 1984 and the of the Académie française.
In 1999, he received the medal of Chevalier of the Légion d'Honneur from the hands of writer Michel Mohrt.
At the age of 65, he stopped practicing medicine. He then devoted himself entirely to writing. In 2004, he left France to settle in Belgrade, where he continued to write books, but in Serbian this time.
In 2007, La luciole de glace was staged at the Madlenianum Opera and Theatre of Zemun.
Being ill, Vladan Radoman returned to France in 2015 and died on 26 October 2015 in Nice.