Dr Nikola from Standerton has a heart for others

The skilled surgeon, Dr Nikola Batev, is a humanitarian at heart.

“A doctor has to devote his life to other human beings,” Nik said.

He attended high school in Russia and qualified with a degree of medical doctor at Belgrade Universityin 1980 and , specialising in surgery in 1988.

The wedding bells rang for him and Lepa in 1983. The couple has two children, Tomislav and Magdalena and two grandchildren – one is three years old and the other six months old.

Toma and his wife Daniella live in Morningside, Johannesburg, while Magdelana and her husband, Tristan McDonald, live in the Cape.

Nik began working at the Standerton Hospital in December 1991 and Lepa and the then three-year-old Toma joined him the next year.

They lived in a hospital house, much bigger than their overseas apartment. The late doctor Leon de Villiers was the hospital superintendent, a position Nik would later occupy.

A short sojourn to Port Shepstone between 1994 and 1995 followed.

Foreign doctors were allowed to work in public hospitals. In 1998, Lepa qualified as a doctor and also worked at the hospital for several years.

Nik had the opportunity to the former Minister of Health, the late Manto Tshabalala-Msimang during his tenure when Standerton Hospital was nominated the best service delivery hospital in South Africa.

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He is in private practice since 1998. Come early every morning, he will be seen on the tennis court, exercising his backhand and forehand and volleying energetically.

In scuba diving, he is a highly ranked dive master who will explore the water, preferably above 30°C. It could be anywhere in the world – Mozambique or the Maldives or the South African coast.

“One feels like a feather in the water,” he said.

Music, whether jazz, blues, classical or rock, name it, and he will swirl proficiently on the dance floor.

Nik is a connoisseur of wines and does not expect guests to bring along their own wine at gatherings.
He misses, however, the hustle and bustle of a hospital.

“One learns from other colleagues and has substantial conversations with your peers. Criticism does not exist in medicine, but advice, second opinions and guidance are the benchmarks.”

One thing gets his goat up.

“I hate to be called a service provider in my private practice,” Nik commented, “I was trained to be doctor”.