In memoriam: Professor Rajko Doleček

With great sadness, the Czech Society of Burns Medicine received sad news that Professor Rajko Doleček, M.D, DrSc., passed away on December 20, 2017, aged 92.

He was a prominent figure and a well-respected medical authority in the Czech Republic as well as internationally by medical, endocrinological and burns societies.

Rajko Doleček was born on June 1, 1925 in Prague. His father was Czech while his mother was Serbian from the eastern part of Bosnia-Hercegovina. He graduated from the Faculty of Medicine at Charles University in Prague in 1950. In 1951, Dr. Doleček started working in Ostrava Regional Hospital, in one of the most industrialized regions of the country, with many burn injuries at that time. Since the very beginning, he oriented himself for endocrinology which was then at its early stage of development. He became the pioneer in the field of metabolism, diabetes, stress and particularly in metabolic/endocrine aspects of burns injuries. His studies of metabolic and endocrinological problems in burn patients were published in Czechoslovakia/Czech Republic repeatedly, but also in the USA (1969, 1990), Spain (1993), etc. In his last book “Endocrinology of Trauma” (2016), he summarized the laboratory results obtained during 60 years of endocrine and metabolic studies in burn and trauma patients. Altogether, over 50 laboratory parameters have been studied including 
33 hormones. At the Ostrava University Hospital, Prof. Doleček worked all his medical career, until recently, when he had his last out-patient clinic on October 5, 2017. In May of 2016, he was awarded the Prof. Radana Königová Burns Prize for his life-long contribution to burns medicine.

Besides medicine, being a half-Serbian, Prof. Doleček wrote several books dedicated to Serbian history and culture in addition to relations between a variety of Balkan nations. He tried to describe and explain the complicated national, ethnic and religious problems in that region which, among others, led to the war in Yugoslavia between 1991–1995.

Professor Rajko Doleček passed away in the hospital where he has worked relentlessly for more than 66 years. Our esteemed, highly respected colleague, a very beloved open-minded and jovial friend as well as a man of distinguished character, left this world with honour, having accomplished a tremendous career that contributed immensely to Czech medicine, endocrinology, and burns treatment in particular.

Assoc. Prof. Leo Klein, MD, CSc.

Division of Plastic Surgery and Burns Treatment

Teaching Hospital, Hradec Králové