Dr. Xheladin Deda

Dr. Xheladin Deda, Doctor, ophthalmologist, patriot, and docent, was born in Mitrovica on 09.08.1909. He attended primary school in Mitrovica, while he attended the gymnasium in Shkodër. As an excellent student, he won a scholarship to study at the Faculty of Medicine in Rome – Italy. He graduated from the Faculty of Medicine on 21.11.1936 in Rome. From 1936 to 1939, he worked as a general practitioner in Tropoja. From 1939 to 1942, he specialized in Ophthalmology at the University Hospital in Rome, Italy, where he completed his specialization in 1942. From 1942 to 1946, he worked in Prizren, as the first Albanian Ophthalmologist. From 1946 to 1948, he worked as an Ophthalmologist at the Tirana Hospital. From 1948, he worked as an Ophthalmologist and Head of the Eye Department in the old Hospital of Pristina, then also in the new facilities – then called the General Hospital, where he worked until the last days of his life. He is known as the first Kosovar Ophthalmologist, the founder of the Eye Department in Kosova, and the person who laid the foundations for the formation of the Eye Clinic of the Faculty of Medicine. In the Hospital of Pristina, he quickly established himself as a good ophthalmologist. With selfless work, he managed to form a team of doctors and lay the solid foundations of the ophthalmology service in Kosova, on which the Ophthalmology Clinic of the Faculty of Medicine in Pristina was built. Dr. Xheladin Deda died in Belgrade, in 1971, on the third day after the cholecystectomy. He was buried with great honors on November 27, 1971, in the Pristina cemetery. Today, the Middle School of Medicine in Mitrovica proudly bears the name of Dr. Xheladin Deda.