"We could see that it was escalating and that people were in such peril. This was not a civil war, this was an armed military against just people on the street--completely uneven," Barron adds.
Shortly after their return, NATO began bombing Yugoslavia and refugees began flooding across the borders of neighboring states. Barron and Leaning returned to the Balkans in April and early May to find out what had happened to the doctors they had met on their previous trips.
"We literally went to find them among the refugees," Barron says. "We went to... find out what happened to them, how we could help them, and... how we could keep them in a network and help them feel supported and connected with one another."
Most of the ethnic Albanian doctors had been fired from their hospitals in the early 1990s, but a few who had skills that the Serbian doctors lacked were allowed to remain. Those who stayed, however, faced strict regulations, including one rule that forced them to be off of the hospital's premises by 2 p.m., according to Leaning.
On March 25, the day after the first NATO bombing, even that compromise ended.
"The medical director of the state hospital informed all ethnic Albanian physicians on staff, and directed all ethnic Albanian patients in the hospital, that they must leave that morning," Leaning said.
A few days later several refugees showed up at the border dressed only in hospital gowns, Leaning said.
Many of the doctors became refugees along with their patients, losing their homes and possessions.
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