The incredible life story of our historian: ‘I was born weighing 900 g, immediately had strokes and a heart attack, they gave me an injection into the heart!’
You know him as a genius, the famous winner of the even more famous TV quiz show Kviskoteka, historian and politician… But you do not know that he was barely born alive, that he did not even weigh a kilogram when he was born, that he immediately suffered a series of strokes and a heart attack… And despite all of that – he succeeded! First of all, to survive. And that miracle from 60 years ago he also owes to the fortunate circumstance that Dobrica Ćosić was his uncle, so the whole SFRY was turned upside down to find the best incubator for little Predrag! This is the surreal life story of Predrag J. Marković!
When he celebrated his 60th birthday this 6 September, his daughter Miona, our well-known actress, congratulating him on the anniversary, revealed that her father had been born weighing 800 grams and in the sixth month of pregnancy. The truth is indeed very close, measured in just a few grams and days of difference.
“Actually, my mother gave birth to me at the very beginning of the seventh month at Višegradska OB/GYN Clinic, I weighed about 900 grams. Since I was showing weak signs of life, they told her: ‘You are a young woman, you will have more children.’ At that time there was generally no salvation for babies lighter than a kilogram. She locked herself in the doctor’s room and demanded that they bring me to her, she would not move until she saw me,” Marković tells Kurir, then adds with a smile:
“As with every baby, after birth I lost a little weight, then I fattened up to 950 grams.”
The name Predrag was given by the renowned specialist in speech disorders Professor Cvetko Brajović, after whom today’s Institute for Psychophysical Disorders and Speech Pathology is named. This famous doctor took a great interest in the new mother Milka and her little son.
“He told her: ‘This boy will be called Predrag because his mother is fighting for him so much,’” the historian says.
And the main battle for the life of the boy written off was won thanks to the fact that his father Jovan was born in Milutinovac near Trstenik. A village a few kilometres from Velika Drenova, where Jovan’s cousin was born – none other than Dobrica Ćosić.
“The greatest role in saving little Predrag was played by Dobrica Ćosić. He pulled every possible string to bring the best incubator from somewhere. According to the story, it was brought from Zagreb. And again I was lucky – both to have Dobrica Ćosić, and that he had not yet become a dissident,” he says with a smile, then seriously:
“Ćosić was an important figure in our home. To Uncle Dobrica I was first taken so they could boast when I had good grades or achieved some success. And later, when I spent time with him myself, he influenced the most important decisions in my life.”
He spent several months in the incubator.
“I had strokes and one heart attack. At that time they also gave me an injection into the heart. And they were astonished when my mother appeared, who had dreamt that something was wrong and came on foot from a hut in Šumice to the Institute for Neonatology,” he recounts.
Dr Katarina Lazić
Cerebral palsy, speech delay still possible today…
Although in the 60 years since Marković’s birth medicine has advanced immeasurably, so that now survival of babies born between the 28th and 32nd gestational week – i.e. in the seventh month – in equipped centres is 90–95%, severe complications are still quite possible.
“In babies born in the seventh month, the most pronounced issue is the immaturity of the respiratory system, due to insufficient production of surfactant in the lungs, which leads to increased risk of respiratory distress syndrome. The central nervous system is also immature, which can cause apnoea (interruptions in breathing) and difficulties in thermoregulation. In addition, because of the immaturity and fragility of the brain’s blood vessels, there is increased risk of intraventricular haemorrhage (bleeding in the brain). The immune system is also insufficiently developed, so infections are frequent. Immaturity of the gastrointestinal tract makes oral feeding difficult and requires feeding via a tube, and often parenteral and enteral feeding as well,” explains Dr Katarina Lazić of the Institute for Neonatology for Kurir.
Stays in the incubator and in the intensive care ward last on average from several weeks to two months, i.e. until stable independent breathing, successful oral feeding and satisfactory body weight are achieved.
“Although a large number of babies born in this period, thanks to adequate care, reach normal neuro-psychomotor development, consequences are also possible: retinopathy of prematurity (due to improper development of retinal blood vessels), hearing damage, bronchopulmonary dysplasia and increased susceptibility to respiratory infections, neurological sequelae such as delayed development of motor skills and speech, and in more severe cases cerebral palsy,” Dr Lazić points out, adding that the long-term prognosis depends on the degree of prematurity, the presence of comorbidities and the quality of neonatal and postnatal care provided.
‘Yes, he was born in a hut, practically in the middle of Belgrade.’
“My mother’s family, who came from Kosovo, lived in some makeshift housing on the route of the future Belgrade–Niš motorway. Fifteen of them lived in one room, and my mother, father and sister Danica basked in in another, as my younger sister Milena Marković beautifully described in her book Children,” says the MP and Director of the Institute for Contemporary History, and continues:
“My right side became paralysed from the stroke. In childhood, I spent hours and hours doing exercises. Before exercises I would have breakfast of frankfurter rolls and yoghurt with Dr Brajović, who by then already headed the Institute for Speech Disorders,” he recalls, and adds:
“I started reading and philosophising early. In kindergarten I philosophised with today’s Professor Aleksandar Prnjat. Since then we have been philosophising for as long as 55 years.”
At the dawn of the breakup of our common state in 1990, Marković, then a history student, would become a megastar of Yugoslavia – he would win in the famous Zagreb Kviskoteka. The one we grew up with and waited for eagerly. And he would do so in no less than the final, defeating Aleksandar Saljnikov’s son-in-law, who had in fact applied him for the quiz. Twice before his victory Marković would fascinate Yugoslavia. First he set the quiz record for points scored – 191. And then he broke his own record, surpassing the fantastic two hundred – 204!
“Somehow I knew what the quiz’s author Lazo Goluža was thinking. As soon as the question started, I knew the answer,” says modestly today the man who did not even have time to enjoy the popularity in such a large country because he immediately went on prize trips to the UK and the USA. When he returned, other troubles were already looming – the war was around the corner.
And the one written off would move on. And get far.
“I guess I needed to earn so much happiness in life that has been given to me,” he says.
And when you read just those facts about 900 grams and 1965, if asked whether he could survive, let alone live life to the fullest with a brilliant mind, you would surely say there was no chance.
“Unfortunately, wrong” – as if I hear the words of the legendary Oliver Mlakar from Kviskoteka for an incorrect answer, which this time, happily, was indeed wrong.
