Immediately after the New Year of 2006, in January, the municipality of Novi Bečej lost its recently best doctor. Having celebrated his 79th birthday, primary care physician Dr. Laslo Pataki, a pediatrician, passed away—a man who enjoyed deep respect and integrity in his community. Dr. Pataki was loved by everyone, regardless of their national, religious, political, or social affiliation. He belonged to the true, but unfortunately dwindling, folk doctors who did not see their profession as a mere vocation but considered their medical calling a mission. He not only assisted people in the narrow professional sense as a pediatrician but literally everywhere, at all times, and for everyone.
He was born on December 31, 1926, in Novi Bečej, completed high school in Zrenjanin, and after graduating from the Medical Faculty in Zagreb, he interned in Belgrade. Except for the period from 1978 to 1979, when he was in Libya as part of the United Nations medical team, he lived and worked in the town near the Tisa River. He also held a significant place in the social life of Novi Bečej. He never interrupted his medical mission, primarily as a pediatric specialist, even when he served as the director of the Health Center for several years. He was a Republic and municipal deputy and a member of the UNICEF specialist physicians with headquarters in Bonn. He had a special interest in professional literature, which he regularly followed and contributed to by publishing scientific papers. In addition to Hungarian and Serbian, he was proficient in German, English, French, and Russian. He had an affinity for art, which he knew well, and occasionally painted. In addition to music and literature, he adored applied art. As a versatile and educated man of culture, he was easy to communicate with and available to everyone. That's why he was particularly esteemed.
Due to all these merits, the residents of the town near the Tisa River initiated the naming of a street after their highly respected Dr. Pataki and the installation of his bust in front of the Health Center.
György Lajber, Hungarian, January 2006 Translated by Karolj Andre
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