A young Bulgarian doctor saves the life of a 10-year-old girl via an innovative method and gets the recognition of his colleagues around the globe. They both carry the same name and it looks like destiny has brought them together at the most fateful moment of all.

When she came to the hospital Stanimira could hardly move, uttered a word or two only and had problems with her eyes due to intracranial pressure. The girl suffered from severe Hydrocephalus (arteriovenous malformation that alters the blood flow in the brain) and the doctors said she didn’t have much time left. Urgent surgery was required. Then Dr. Stanimir Sirakov reached the brain of the child through a leg artery, thus preventing the classical opening of the skull.

“This intervention is extraordinary due to the complexity of the malformations – so rare and with such complex anatomic structure,” says Dr. Stanimir Sirakov. “The kid’s chances were really bad and perhaps only months were left to the fatal end. Then we interfered and at the moment she is recovering. Hopefully she will have a normal life. There have been quite many attempts registered around the globe for this kind of surgery, but we are barely the second ones who have succeeded.”

The 33-year-old doctor has recently received the so-called medical Oscar – National Medical Awards, due to his brilliant achievement.

“I don’t know about the doors that this award opens, but the method has received its greater popularization and now everybody knows that similar procedures and surgery are possible in Bulgaria. This is perhaps the biggest plus. Besides that it feels nice to receive the appraisal and recognition of your Bulgarian colleagues…”

Dr. Stanimir Sirakov has specialized across different European clinics, but mostly with Prof. Dr. Petar Bošnjaković in Nis and with doyen of interventional neuroradiology Prof. Jacques Moret in Paris. Dr. Sirakov admits that Medical Imaging and Interventional Neuroradiology in Bulgaria haven’t still reached the proper level. “We must simply train outside, if we want to be up to date,” the young doctor says.

“I had no other option, but to go abroad, if I wanted to specialize,” Dr. Sirakov goes on to say. “We had to learn abroad first, in order to start practicing in Bulgaria. A month ago we succeeded in opening a reference center for cerebro-vascular issues with the ST. Ivan Rilski Hospital. My goal now is to develop it to the maximum and to provide the Bulgarian patients with the same treatment and care they would receive abroad…”

“I think it is more pleasant and satisfying to prove your capabilities somewhere where something hasn’t been developed than simply joining an already working structure somewhere. We always work as a team and the entire department consists of young and motivated doctors who introduce and develop methods and technologies in the name of the Bulgarian patient.”

The young doctor grew up in the town of Kardzhali with the stories of his father – an anesthesiologist at the local hospital. Dr. Sirakov knew his path even then and says that his successes wouldn’t be the same without the support of his father. The doctor has been happy with his baby son for a few months now, who “makes home enjoyable and fun”. No wonder if the family tradition gets passed on, in case the young doctor is also successful in telling stories to his baby son about his work at the hospital…

English version: Zhivko Stanchev