Dr. Hasim Sait Saliu was born on 01.07.1950 in the village of VĂ«rbjan, municipality of Gostivar. He completed primary school in the village where he was born, while he completed secondary school in Gostivar. After finishing high school, in 1969 he enrolled in the high school of pedagogy – majoring in mathematics and physics in Skopje, which he graduated in the 1970-1971 school year.
The academic year ’71-’72 found him a student at the Faculty of General Medicine in Pristina, which he graduated in record time, in October 1976, with almost absolute success. During his studies, he was appointed a demonstrator in the subject of anatomy, a function he performed for 3.5 years, i.e. until the end of his academic studies.
With the proposal of the then dean of the Faculty of Medicine – the Albanian scientific legend Prod. Dr. Musa A. Haxhiu, for a term of one year, he was appointed demonstrator in the course of pathophysiology. At the proposal of his generation, for one term he was a delegate in the council of teachers of the Faculty of Medicine.
During his studies, he was appointed chairman of the students’ scientific research committee, in the function of which he led the group with a scientific paper at the Congress of Medical and Dental Students of Yugoslavia in Cavtat in 1976, for which he received special praise. In 1977, he was decorated with the title of student of the generation for 1976.
After finishing his studies, guided by the saying “Sedare dolorum opust divinum est”, he returned to Gostivar to put himself at the service of his compatriots and worked in the municipal ambulance for adults in Gostivar until 1980, when he competed and was accepted at the Clinic of Surgery and Orthopedics in Pristina, assistant of Prof. Dr. Gazmend Shaqiri. At the same time, he started specializing in the field of general surgery and was authorized by the head of the department of surgery as an assistant in the subject of general surgery.
In the school years 1981/1982 and 1982/1983, he taught the subject of general surgery at the High School of medicine in Pristina. In 1983, he moved to Zagreb, Croatia, to complete his specialization. At the same time, he registers and completes his postgraduate studies with absolute success. At the end of 1984, he successfully defended the specialistic exam before the committee led by Prof. Dr. Mladen Shtulhofer and returned to Pristina, where he continues to work as a specialist in the vascular surgery service, led by his close colleague Prof. Dr. Gazmend Shaqiri.
In 1985 and 1986 he returned to Zagreb to defend the subspecialist exam where he earned the title of subspecialist vascular surgeon. In the school year 1986, he was elected an assistant by the teachers’ council in the subject of surgery, a function he performed until he left the clinic center, where he had his residence for 7 years, for reasons well known to the reader. During his stay at the clinic, he actively participated in dozens of professional meetings, at the two Yugoslav congresses of surgery, in which he participated with scientific papers led by his mentor Prof. Dr. Gazmend Shaqiri (1984 in Zagreb and 1988 in Sarajevo).
In 1986, he took an active part in the World Congress of Vascular Surgeons held in Athens. In 1986, he obtained the right to subspecialize in the cardiac surgery branch in Houston, USA, a right which was later denied for political reasons. After leaving the clinical center in Pristina in 1992, he returned to Gostivar and opened the first private surgical clinic. In 1996, he was employed at the general hospital in Gostivar, where he worked until 2016.
During his career as a doctor and surgeon, he published over 70 scientific and professional works. In 1999, on the occasion of the expulsion of thousands of Albanians from their homes, Dr. Saliu put himself at the service of the displaced professionally and socially. In 2001, he served as a doctor in the care of injured and sick KLA fighters. Today he lives as a pensioner in Gostivar, continuing to apply the saying “Sedare dolorum opust divinum est” as age and circumstances allow.