Director of KBC Rebro Ante Ćorušić has passed away

Ante Ćorušić (66), director of the Clinical Hospital Center (KBC) Zagreb, has passed away in the hospital following a fall, confirmed the Ministry of Health. Unofficial sources from Večernji list indicate that the incident occurred on the fire escape stairs, while the police report that investigations are underway at the scene of the accident. Born on May 15, 1958, in Split, Ćorušić was a gynecologist by profession and also served as the president of the Croatian Society of Gynecology and Obstetrics.

He was appointed director of KBC Zagreb on January 28, 2016, at the first session of the then government led by Tomislav Karamarko. Although he initially appeared as a candidate for Minister of Health, due to opposition from the Most party, Ćorušić accepted the leading position in the largest hospital in the country. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Ćorušić distinguished himself with his views on gatherings and vaccination, repeatedly stating that citizens must adhere to epidemiologically prescribed measures. ‘Bergamo will not happen in Croatia,’ was clear from the director of Rebro in 2021.

After the pandemic subsided, questions regarding his professional and ethical stances came back into focus. One of the most well-known cases he was involved in was the case of Mirela Čavajde, who sought the right to terminate her pregnancy due to a diagnosis of severe fetal malformation. Ćorušić, as a member of the commission, expressed the opinion that there was a certain chance for the child’s recovery despite conclusions that the tumor was life-threatening. Ćorušić’s work was also marked by medical incidents. Croatian portals previously reported that in 2003, after an operation on a patient, he left gauze in the abdominal cavity.

Although he claimed at the time that the accusations were fabricated, KBC Zagreb paid compensation to the patient, reported Večernji. Additionally, in 2014, he operated on a woman from whom, according to reports, a healthy ovary was removed instead of the one affected by a tumor, which Ćorušić himself confirmed in later statements. ‘I was sure that I did not make a medical error, that I did not treat the woman incorrectly,’ Ćorušić said in Nedjeljom u 2. ‘Ultrasound can mistake sides, what is ultrasonically left is right. And I removed the right ovary. And the histological report found those paratubal cysts and normal ovarian tissue, that is correct. That is why compensation was paid,’ the gynecologist added at the time.

In addition to medical controversies, Ćorušić had several incidents with the police, writes Večernji list. In 2009, after a family dispute, the police detained him for self-harm threats. Nacional later revealed that in 2012 he fired a gun in the Zagreb neighborhood of Šestine, for which he was also hospitalized. Ante Ćorušić, according to his own admission in an interview for Slobodna Dalmacija in 2020, has been a member of the HDZ since 1989, joining the party in Zaprešić, where he lived at the time. In May 1991.

Ćorušić temporarily interrupted his specialization to join the Main Medical Headquarters as a volunteer doctor, and then the Croatian police forces and the then National Guard. He spent 19 months and 13 days on the battlefield. His wartime path included participation in battles in Vukovar, Vinkovci, Osijek, Pakrac, Lipik, and Garešnica. After the international recognition of Croatia in September 1992, he was demobilized and subsequently passed the specialist exam in gynecology and obstetrics. During 1994, as a volunteer, he went to Bosnia and Herzegovina, where he worked in Nova Bila, Vitez, and Travnik, as previously reported by tportal.