One Step Beyond – Bosnia – People – Alija Ibrahimpasic

I rushed over to help him. At the same time I started to panic, thinking that the same thing could happen to me. That might mean that we wouldn't be found in time. I remembered the first-aid course I had in school. And of course I had gained experience in the course of my work with this organization. So I pulled my shoelaces out of my shoes and tied them around his leg, directly above the injured foot, to stop the bleeding.

After administering first aid, I looked around and saw that my colleague's shoe was lying on the edge of the small path and that parts of his foot were scattered over the grass. It's hard to imagine, but they were still moving, as if they were alive. This really shocked me, and I felt even worse. But then my thoughts immediately returned to helping my injured colleague. Because he was still conscious, I asked him if could try to crawl to the main road himself. It would have been too dangerous for me to try to carry him within the mined area. We could have both stepped on another mine, as neither of us knew whether or where further mines had been laid.

He crawled the approximately twenty meters back to the edge of the road. I followed him, and we got into the car. I called our organization on my car telephone and told them what had happened. I also asked them to arrange for an ambulance to be sent in our direction. Because we were on impassable high ground, I drove as fast as I could to a place I thought I might meet the arriving ambulance.

Fearing he might become unconscious, I never stopped talking to my friend. I had to stop him from falling into a coma. When we arrived at the agreed place, I saw that the emergency doctor hadn't arrived yet. I was sure he'd gotten lost. I called our office, asking them to call the hospital and tell them to prepare everything for an operation. I then proceeded to drive my colleague directly to the hospital. They amputated his leg just below the knee. I was also treated in the hospital for injuries on my forehead – they wanted to prevent blood poisoning.

The next day, I accompanied several specialists, who were to later write a report, to the site of the accident It wasn't until then that it became clear to me that I had been in a state of shock: I had instructed the deminers to clear mines at a ninety-degree angle to the main road. But the accident occurred at an angle of forty-five degrees. It wasn't until the deminers had gone about twenty meters in the wrong direction that I realized my mistake. No one questioned my confusion. The deminers went back to inspect the original stretch for mines.

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