Prof. Dr. Besim Elezi, Doctor of Medical Sciences and prominent surgeon, was born in Fterrë, on March 20, 1935. He completed primary school in his native village and in Gjirokastra. He finished medical high school in Tirana in 1952. In 1957 he graduated with honors from the Faculty of Medicine in Tirana. Since that year he has been appointed surgeon and lecturer in the Department of Surgery. He has since completed specializations and qualifications in several clinics around the world.
With persistent work, he has climbed the ladders of the medical, pedagogical, and scientific career. In 1964 he defended his dissertation for the scientific degree “Candidate of Medical Sciences”, then he defended his dissertation for the scientific degree “Doctor of Medical Sciences”. For the pedagogical activity, he received the degree of “Docent” and then “Professor”. In 1976 he was appointed Chief of Clinic and in 1982 Chief of Department at the University Hospital Center “Mother Teresa”.
He has made an outstanding contribution to the modernization of Albanian surgery, introducing many new methods of diagnosis and treatment. Dr. Elezi has trained, at the same time, a large number of doctors and surgeons.
He has been elected President of the Albanian Association of Surgeons, a member of the Permanent Committee of Eurosurgery and a member of the International College of Surgeons. He has made a number of publications and references in scientific conferences at home and abroad. He has published monographs and textbooks and about 100 articles and papers.
He has been honored with various orders and medals. In 2002, he was proclaimed “Outstanding Personality of the Region” for Vlora, where in the motivation, among other things, it is said: “⊠He is valued as the son of Kurvelesh for patriotism, humanism and close social relations”.