Vegetarian Cannibal / Ljudožder Vegetarijanac

Alen Bović, real name Ivo Balenović, is a Croatian ex-gynecologist turned writer. He is to be thanked for one of the most iconic Croatian movies in the 2000s. His portrayal of the more depraved parts of Croatian culture is incredibly accurate, and just our culture and behavior in general. Metastaze is a movie that me and my dad quote a lot lmao. I never read his books though - and this one, Vegetarian Cannibal, stood out to me in its synopsis. While I was aware of the movie and have probably seen it in some capacity in the past, I don't think I've ever seen it fully so I might give it a watch after this.

Balenović being a gynecologist in the past is extremely important to the novel. Some of the stories are actual real life things that happened, and his portrayal of hospital life and doctor dynamics is incredibly, scarily and disturbingly accurate. In fact his experience with how corrupt and disgusting hospitals are here is what ultimately made him end his career (according to some he has returned to practice here or there) and as an ironic twist of fate he ended up involved in a massive medical malpractice lawsuit regarding a birth carried out wrongly which resulted in the child being born with extreme brain damage - I'll talk about this later in detail.

Vegetarian Cannibal is a movie about a gynecologist working in one of the major hospitals in Zagreb. He is self obsessed, cynical, hates women, hates his coworkers, and is most likely a sociopath - so you know, your average male doctor. He got into this career because of the money, as getting an abortion in Croatia is something you have to pay for. He often tampers with various medical findings and diagnostic tests just to hurt his coworkers or the patient he dislikes, he tampers with death causes to save his ass for murdering a patient and inevitably gets himself involved with the local mafia.

What stood out to me the most were the parts in which the story focused on hospital life and coworker dynamics as opposed to the more illegal/underworld stuff. Nurses that have sex with all of the doctors, doctors that are constantly drunk, even during surgeries, the style of jokes being directed towards a foreign doctor, the inhumane treatment of female patients - all of these are so incredibly accurate, and how do I know? My dad works as a patient transporter, each one of these stories I've read in the book I have heard from my dad multiple times lmao. Each and every one. All of this disgusting and vile shit, and none of it an exaggeration. Even through my own personal experience I can vouch for male gynecologists being extreme freaks and creeps after having an extremely uncomfortable encounter with the one in my town's hospital when I went in for my burst appendix.

The book was phenomenal. In a world that's definitely oversaturated with cynical male protagonists that hate women I understand this is definitely not going to be on the top of someone's reading list, but I feel like this is such an important work in the context of my country and the way these industries work, due to how accurate it is. This is how doctors see us, and this is how they treat us. And most importantly, it came straight from the horse's mouth.

To get back to Balenović and the medical malpractice case - it's certainly an interesting one and the story itself could fit right into the book. According to him, on that day, he was the doctor on call but not the one making the most crucial calls, so a man in the middle. If a cesarean section were to happen he would have to run it through the main doctor. Another doctor, one that has his own private practice - has called in that he will bring his patient to give birth in the public hospital. This is of course, illegal, because tax funded hospitals end up paying for private doctors. Private practice doctors split the money with the people that hold positions of power in these public hospitals and they all make extra cash basically. Balenović himself had not been implicated in this because he's essentially a nobody, and he wasn't even aware (according to him) that this practice was illegal, because this was such a normal and regular occurrence that younger doctors never even questioned it. These private practice doctors would even participate in morning meetings between the staff so most people assume they just worked on some kind of an outside contract lmao. The other doctor is also supposed to answer to the main doctor, just like Balenović. Somehow, the private practice doctor was allowed to order a cesarean section (because this was probably agreed upon beforehand so they can make more money) which he discussed with Balenović who was busy delivering another baby. Something went wrong and the baby belonging to the private practice doctor was severely lacking oxygen (this state the baby was in takes 2 hours to develop - meaning the private practice doctor wasn't monitoring the pregnancy well), they wouldn't have time for a cesarean section. Balenović was called in and he applied the Kristeller maneuver (which can be very dangerous). The woman in labor had two of her left ribs broken - the private practice doctor was standing on that side. What exactly they've done to her is not known and I can't find any articles detailing her experience.

When the process of the lawsuit began, Balenović was not practicing anymore. The private practice doctor contacted him and warned him not to tell the police he came to do births in the public hospital on the regular and that he completely depended on Balenović's orders during that day, and that Balenović should take the fall. Cornix cornice oculus non effodiet, aka a crow will not pull out the eye of another crow. Balenović didn't take his advice and he remained honest (according to him, again) and reported on the illegal stuff this other doctor did to many sources including multiple ministers of health, most of it was ignored. The statute of limitations on the case with the baby has ran out in the meantime, despite the best efforts of the parents to sue both doctors, due to the court delaying it on purpose, corruption, yada yada.

Is Balenović innocent? I don't know, what I can say for certain is that he lacked the authority to make any more important calls on that day (witnesses etc corroborate that) and because hospitals in the early 2000s were ripe with illegal practices like this as a young doctor you had to be careful not to step on anybody's toes. Because of that, a woman and her child had to suffer.

I couldn't resist retelling this case because it really complements the book and exposes how wonderful our court and healthcare are...