Captain Vranic brought first batch of ventilators to Serbia, ended up on one: "Flying was his life"

Svetislav Vranic; Printscreen: RTS

Captain Svetislav Vranic, the pilot who flew the plane that brough the first shipment of ventilators to Serbia at the start of the pandemic, has died from coronavirus. His sister Dunja says that fate toyed with him, so he ended his life on a ventilator.

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"I was just now with his wife, she is crushed with pain like all of us. He was our support and someone to lean on. Flying was his life. He had been flying since the age of 17," she told the daily Informer.

According to her, they believe that he got infected on a simulator in Istanbul.

"After returning from a flight from New York, on November 9, he and his family went to Mt. Zlatibor, and then on November 14, he went to Istanbul for simulator (training). We corresponded then, and he told me that on the first day a colleague from France sneezed and coughed behind his neck, and then he felt the symptoms himself. However, he was the type of man who would not want to leave the simulator, but stayed in Istanbul for another seven days, until the end," she says.

Upon his return to Serbia, Svetislav isolated himself from his family and moved to another apartment. However, coronavirus knocked him down, as he lost his strength and was barely able to stand up. His wife managed to take him to the hospital, where he was admitted to the Clinic for Pulmonology of the Clinical Center on November 27.

According to his sister, he was supposed to be released from the hospital in three to four days, but the situation became complicated.

"The pleura ruptured and he ended up on a ventilator. Fate toyed with him. He loved humanitarian campaigns and flights during which he brought help to Serbia. He flew in the first ventilators, and in the end his life ended on a ventilator," Dunja explains.

She added that Captain Vranic did not have any chronic diseases, that he was strong, did not consume alcohol and cigarettes and exercised regularly, but that "this plague is not to be underestimated."

She only had words of praise for the staff at the Clinical Center.

"I must thank the staff at the Clinic who did everything they could. They are fighting for every patient and trying to save them. It's not easy for them either," she concluded.

Family wants him laid to rest in his uniform

Captain Vranic's sister says that they still don't know the date and the time of the funeral.

"We don't know the time and the date of the funeral yet. Since the situation now with coronavirus is such that the deceased are not buried in clothes, we will try to do something to make sure he is buried in his uniform. That is our wish," she says.

(Telegraf.rs)