Dr. Virginia de Rosalim: on the first patient, a goose, strangers in his house and lessons from the guests | Life

The family doctor V. Kazlauskiene, called by the locals simply as a doctor, says that the sound of the deep inspiration of a revived person after a clinical death is much more beautiful than Beethoven’s symphony.

“You have to be a doctor,” said a relative who worked at a blood transfusion center after Virginia, who was seriously ill at the time, had to transfuse blood for thirteen years. “Because you have a lot of blood from the doctors transfused.”

But life in Virginia isn’t just about medicine. For 15 years, he has led the community of Rosalim, has actively participated in its activities to this day and accepts pilgrims who pass through the city to spend the night at his home, since the path of the Lithuanian Way passes through Rosalim .

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Virginia came to Rosalim with her husband in 1988, a few years after the marriage. She herself grew up in the Radviliškis district and her husband was from Suwalki.

“When I graduated from the Kaunas Medical Institute in Soviet times, there were appointments. Of the 280 graduates, I had 99 in terms of learning achievement; he was in the top 100 who could choose a place to be designated.

My husband and I grew up in the village, so we wanted to go back to the village. So we looked at where the most beautiful place was. We wanted Suwalki, because the man is from Suwalki, or Aukštaitija, because I am Aukštaitija.

My dad was a bus driver, he says: You cannot find a more beautiful place like Rosalim.

Yes, right after graduation, Virginia started working as an outpatient internal medicine doctor in the city and the family began to build their lives here. Although Virginia had an offer to work at the Pakruojis city hospital, she herself wanted to stay in Rosalim.

– Virginia, did Rosalim immediately become home?

– Rosalim is a place where you can discover peace. Now this is my house, although at first it really wasn’t a house. I lived because I lived. When I felt like my home was here, I can’t even say it.

But now it’s good to come back here, and the people who come to Rosalim see it with completely different eyes. It opens with its beauty, its spectacularity, its architecture. And if a house appears for sale, quickly and buy.

– Rosalie looking for real estate?

– Yes, buy. Unless prices are called. Because there are people who sell and there are people who sell. Here’s another matter. As for the city itself, near Panevėžys, near Šiauliai, near Pakruojis, a convenient place.

– How are you interested in medicine in general?

– From childhood it was the yearning for medicine. As a child I played with typewriters, but of course they also gave me puppets. From what I can remember, I treated them all the time. And my first patient was a goose. So I was 14 or 15 years old.

– Goose – toy or real?

– True. We lived on one farm, my mother raised turkeys and geese. And there were three geese. One of them grew up very badly, he was so disadvantaged. One day the foxes clung on, the goiter became huge. I tell my mother: Mom, what if I have surgery? Mom man: your baby, don’t swim.

I hid from my mother, I found a very sharp knife.

I hid from my mother, found a very sharp knife, burned it on a gas stove. Then I took a goose and went to get firewood. The goose was completely weak but still alive.

I cut his stomach, took out all the whips, then took the needle with the thread, sewed the stomach, the skin and, taking it to the patio, I lay down in such a crib on the grass, watered with a pipette. My first patient survived twenty-four hours a day.

– So what, Mom?

– So what, mom … She sees that she won’t survive.

It is true that an event depended on the goose. When he was 13 years old, he was very ill, bleeding and lying in Radviliškis Hospital. My aunt was the director of Blood Flood Station. They transfused me a lot of blood. I remember she said: you will have to be a doctor because many doctors have transfused you with blood. I remember that saying very clearly.

– Is it true that you really wanted to be a surgeon?

– Yes, but at that time women could not be surgeons.

– Because?

– It was still the Soviet era, in that order. If a woman chose a surgical profile during her practice, at best it could be an ENT doctor or an ophthalmologist. Surgeons were not allowed. It is true that I began my medical career in the operating room; When I was studying, I worked here as a health worker in the evenings and on weekends.

– When you started working at Rosalim, how did you see him as a doctor?

– I could bow my head in front of Dr. Grėbliūnas, the head of the ward at Panevėžys Hospital, who worked in the general therapeutic ward. Through practice, I learned a lot of independence from him. I think that was the beginning of my work.

When I graduated from high school, it seemed to me that I knew everything, and when I started working, I realized that I did not know anything. Fear, a feeling of mistrust, responsibility; after all, it’s not my job to distort details. It was difficult, there were many books to read.

The village grandmother comes to the doctor and all the underwear is new, even with prices sometimes.

This is how I came to work at Rosalim: scared. However, it turned out to me that the patients were very neglected, very unexplored. At that time, if he wanted to consult in the medical institutions of Vilnius or Kaunas, he had to agree with the head of the polyclinic and his stamp had to be on the reference.

I was the type of person to hit the wall with my forehead. People started going to Vilnius, Kaunas, because I wrote in handwriting: at my request. And there, in other hospitals, nobody was interested in what that referral was, and well. People just came to me to ask for references.

There is still such a memory. A grandmother from the village comes to the doctor and all the underwear is new, even with prices sometimes. Because he goes to the doctor.

– Now he works in his own private clinic in Pakruojis, but at the same time he is also Rosalim’s doctor. What does it mean to be a doctor in a small town where you live?

– The patient seems to become a member of the family. Oh, and the generation is already changing: my patients bring their children.

There was even a case that called after work and asked: doctor, or don’t know where to find a vet, my cow got sick. You are so master that it is normal for them to take it and that is what you call. I think it’s normal to have great appreciation for you as a human being.

When you’ve worked in the same place for at least 10 years, you meet all the families. They may not know each other. So sometimes just one call is enough and you already know if it’s worth traveling or just saying what to do.

– And when it comes to human things: treat those with whom you spend time in the community. That does not bother you?

– I’m a doctor in the office and Virginia in the city. I am a person like everyone else: if it is an event, I celebrate, dance and sing together.

Once I thought about the need to welcome the New Year in the pinar del Rosal. I posted on Facebook, we organized permits, bonfires, lighting, music. I suggest that anyone who wants to come with our family to celebrate the New Year. There were more than 50 people, we danced, we sang, we played and we lit bonfires. Everyone still remembers today.

– Have you been president of the community for 15 years?

– When the community movement started to appear in Lithuania about 20 years ago, we saw that it is really good to have money for events, you can simply get involved in additional activities. We form an initiative group of five people, then a community.

It was very difficult to make something out of nothing, but the people were united by the preservation of our pine forest. I wanted to cut it, the pines were marked. The pine forest is right next to the town, it is a recreation area. People managed to save. When the community was established, community events began, both in the community and in conjunction with the Casa de la Cultura. Yes, I have been doing this for 15 years.

– Virginia, you receive accommodation and pilgrims in your house. How did the neighbors react to your initiative to accept strangers at night?

– Means of compassion. And I say, try it, you’ll see how much fun it is. They just don’t understand where I have such an engine from which I can work from 7 to. M. A 7 p. M. And continue accepting pilgrims.

Of course, now the quarantine has mixed everything up, people feel cold, communication is broken, events are happening. And once the quarantine restrictions are released, I will continue to accept. People are already calling, asking.

– One night with you costs a few euros and breakfast. Not for the money, after all?

– Of course not. These are people who bring you a lot, emotionally. I really like to communicate with them.

I let them go out whenever they want: I tell them to lock the house and where to put the key.

I let them go out whenever they want: I tell them to lock the house and put the key. We are planning a home development to give them more private space.

– What people have left their mark on your own life?

– Our former pastor Anicetas Kisielius. We call his father. That man gave me an infinite amount and I had an infinite amount to learn from him. Often I not only pray at his grave, but I also remember his lessons.

I also received lessons from Professor Genovaitė Valčiukienė, who was fighting for the pine forest. Although there was a lot of fire between us, but from him I learned combativeness, seeing nature from a different point of view.

And seeing what we cannot see has been taught to us by people living in poverty. Then you realize how we cannot appreciate what we have and demand such insignificant things from life.

Seeing the poor life of another, especially in the face of death, begins to see everything differently. We had to clothe and feed many dead and we have driven with our family, we have transported our car, everything has been here during those years.

People living in poverty have been taught to see what we cannot see.

And then you realize that your life is so full of everything that in case of problems you just have to click your finger and friends and acquaintances will appear.

I received a very big lesson at the Klovainiai Youth Center for People with Intellectual Disabilities, where there are people with intellectual disabilities. I drove there as a doctor. His inner warmth, sincerity and attention … One morning I went to work, I walked all day with an earring and nobody saw me, and there I just crossed the threshold, and immediately the question: where is your earring?

Even more special is their sincere expression of love if you learn to communicate with and understand them. Then you realize how much you have rewarded yourself in life: first of all, health. Not wealth, nor material values ​​are the most important in life.