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Dr. Csaba Weninger graduated from secondary school in Mohács in 1984, but he had to wait a year before being admitted to medical school. In the meantime, he spent six months working at the Department of Otorhinolaryngology in Pécs. He has many fond memories of what was then the Medical University of Pécs and regards those years as one of the most beautiful periods of his life. Besides laryngology, he was also drawn to pathology and internal medicine but ultimately became a radiologist. He worked at the Department of Radiology in Pécs for nearly 21 years, where he was both a respected physician and teacher. In 2012, he and his family decided to move to Sweden, where he currently works at the county hospital in Trollhättan. He is deeply attached to his roots in Baranya county and Pécs and continues to maintain close ties with his alma mater and honours the legacy of his predecessors in many different ways.

Written by Rita Schweier

- What was the university, and student life, like in the 1980s?

- Those were the best years of my life. I had the privilege of learning from many outstanding teachers and instructors, including Dr. György Sétáló in anatomy, Dr. Ferenc Baranyay in pathology, and Dr. Alajos Pár in internal medicine. One of the most valuable lessons I have carried with me ever since came from Professor Sétáló, who always reminded us to be aware of the limits of our professional competence and never overstep them. The departments were headed by renowned professors such as Dr. Béla Flerkó, Dr. Endre Grastyán, and Dr. József Tigyi, which also made that period truly exceptional. I will never forget the microbiology final examination, when Professor Iván Kétyi rewarded my performance with what he called a “beer five”, which meant that I should have a beer in his honour to celebrate my result. Although I work in somatic medicine, I also have pleasant memories of the psychiatry lectures delivered by Professor Károly Ozsváth.

I lived in the dormitory during my university years. In my first year, I stayed in the legendary “A” dormitory on Square 48, then in the quieter “B” building. Although I was never the life of the party, I enjoyed the community events. We watched many great films in the dormitory club, all on VHS tapes, since we did not have a video recorder at home. Back then, our entire group usually took the exams on the same day—there had to be a very good reason for anyone to take an exam separately—and after passing, we would all go out for a beer together.

As a university student, I was also busy with editing the student newspaper, Medikus Híradó, as an amateur for several years, and some of my articles were published in the university newspaper, Universitas.

- To what extent did your years spent at the university shape your later career?

- Very much so. We received a solid theoretical foundation, which helped us in clinical practice. I have to admit that anatomy was not my strongest subject, even though it is of fundamental importance in radiology, since this knowledge is essential for interpreting medical images because abnormalities can only be identified after understanding anatomy. In fact, I could also describe my profession as applied anatomy. I learned pathology easily, I found the textbook interesting and enjoyable to read, and I was genuinely attracted to this field. This subject is actually the foundation of clinical medicine. I also enjoyed my summer internship in internal medicine after my third year, where I gained first-hand insight into clinical practice under the guidance of outstanding physicians such as Dr. Alajos Pár and Dr. Ferenc Pakodi. I also liked laryngology, I continued working at the Department of Otorhinolaryngology for several years, and at one point I seriously considered pursuing a career in that specialty after graduation. In the end, however, things turned out differently because during my fourth year I was introduced to radiology, and we “found each other”. I had an excellent instructor, Dr. Szilvia Boross, who taught in a systematic and structured way, and I also met a nice examiner, Dr. Tibor Csere, who focused on what we knew rather than on what we did not know during the final examination. It was one of the most enjoyable examinations of my student years and proved to be a great source of motivation. In my sixth year, internal medicine once again emerged as an attractive option, but I ultimately applied for a position in the Department of Radiology, where I began working in October 1991. I spent a few months short of 21 years there. There were no physicians in my family, so everything I knew about this job came solely from my experiences as a patient.

- Did your professional career get off to a smooth start?

- There were difficult days, I received criticism, but that is something everyone experiences. Looking back, however, I think that I received all the support I needed to do my job well.

By today’s standards, the equipment available at the department in the 1990s seems rather modest, but I had the privilege of learning alongside an outstanding team of highly skilled professionals, including Dr. Erzsébet Grexa, Dr. Ágnes Hertelendy, Dr. Zsuzsa Moró, Dr. Györgyi Nádor, Dr. András Palkó, and Dr. László Horváth, while radiation therapy was represented by Dr. Klára Stefanits and Dr. Tibor Csere. The head of the department was Professor Endre Kuhn at that time.

It is important to mention that we also had excellent radiographers. The supportive attitude of my senior colleagues meant a great deal to me, and later in my career, I returned the same attitude to younger colleagues. At the time, therapeutic procedures involving needle puncture and catheterisation were still in their infancy, and many of the techniques had not yet even been developed, so, as a result, I was unable to gain experience in interventional radiology procedures, while proficiency in these procedures has since become an expected competency for radiologists. MRI was not yet available at the department either, but from the early 2000s onwards, I had the opportunity to interpret MRI examinations at the Pécs Diagnostic Centre. This provided additional income and greatly supported both my clinical and teaching work, as I gave lectures on neuroradiology for many years. When I first started working there, I received a lot of help from Dr. Ferenc Kövér, the medical director of the Pécs Diagnostic Centre, for which I remain grateful. I spend about half of my working hours with MRI examinations at my current workplace as well.

- What happened during the 21 years you spent at the department in Pécs?

- I gradually worked my way through the academic ranks, first as a senior lecturer and later as a senior clinical physician. At Professor László Horváth’s request, I was entrusted with developing the department’s quality management system in accordance with ISO standards, which was no small task. In 2007, I felt as though I had aged several months on the day of the certification audit.

I also worked as deputy head of department alongside the head of the department, Dr. István Battyáni, which is probably one of the reasons why he was disappointed when my wife and I resigned and moved to Sweden. Although I had ambitions to pursue a scientific degree, I allowed the department’s interests to take precedence over my own professional aspirations.

- Why did you decide to continue your lives abroad?

- In fact, it was my wife who first suggested the idea, but it took many years before we actually did it. In the early 2000s, I had more than enough work: in addition to my duties at the department, I also worked at the Pécs Diagnostic Centre, participated in the training of medical students and residents and also in the further training of residents, attended conferences, and published scientific papers. Meanwhile, my wife, Dr. Marianna Fehér, joined what was then the Department of Trauma and Hand Surgery. When our personal paths eventually crossed, we started a family, and our twins were born. After she returned to work, she was dissatisfied with her salary despite holding two specialist qualifications. Around that time—following Hungary’s accession to the European Union in 2004—many Hungarian physicians began seeking employment abroad, particularly in the United Kingdom, Germany, and Austria. We also considered the possibility, but neither of us spoke English or German well enough to practise medicine confidently, and because of our heavy workload, we had no opportunity to improve our language skills. In the meantime, several recruitment agencies specialising in placements in the Scandinavian region appeared on the market. One of our younger colleagues in Pécs, Dr. Zoltán Lendvai, who was just completing his specialist training, accepted a position in Sweden, and his example made us seriously reconsider the idea. Although I resisted for a long time, eventually I gave in, thinking that if things did not work out, we could return. With the help of a Hungarian cardiologist already working in Sweden, we were invited to a job interview in the town of Arvika in September 2012, and by November we had relocated there.

Arvika is about the size of Mohács, which has a small hospital with a close-knit radiology department. It was an ideal environment for adapting to life in a new country, but when our children approached the end of secondary school, we decided it was time for another change. Today, we both work at the county hospital in Trollhättan, a town of around fifty thousand inhabitants near Gothenburg, as part of a truly international team. There are five of us working there who began our careers at the Department of Radiology in Pécs, which is quite unique. My wife is also a senior clinical physician at the hospital who, since she originally trained as an orthopaedic surgeon in Kecskemét, frequently treats patients with soft tissue disorders or joint conditions requiring ultrasound or MRI examinations. Our responsibilities include reporting emergency imaging examinations and interpreting non-urgent CT scans and X-ray examinations, among other tasks.

The hospital serves as the acute care centre for a relatively large region, around two hundred patients pass through our department each day, making it one of the busiest departments in Sweden.

- How do the Swedish day-to-day practice and organisational structure differ from the Hungarian system?

- The workload is just as demanding there, but we do have somewhat larger teams. When we started working here in 2013, radiology had already become fully digital, paper referrals no longer existed, and reports were also produced exclusively in electronic form. Certain X-ray examinations had already been replaced by CT scans in the 2010s, for example the plain abdominal X-ray. Most Swedish physicians tend to write concise reports and focus primarily on the abnormalities identified in the images. Here we can step away from our work at least twice a day and take short breaks, which I greatly appreciate. We can also have a proper lunch break. During lunchtime, some radiographers continue performing urgent CT examinations, while one or two radiologists are specifically scheduled to report emergency examinations between noon and one o’clock. They then take their own lunch break and can rest a bit after 1 p.m. This is a significant contrast to what I experienced in Hungary. And, of course, the famous Swedish coffee break, fika, is “sacred”, during which patient examinations simply do not take place.

- Looking back after all these years, do you feel that this change was the right decision?

- Yes, although there is no change in someone’s life that brings only positive or only negative consequences. Living abroad comes with its own peculiarities, including cultural differences and unfamiliar customs, but none of these have fundamentally affected us. I see our life here as an investment or a project, in which we have to put in the effort first, and depending on its success, we can eventually reap the rewards. I have made many close friends here—colleagues from Chile, Serbia, the Czech Republic, Persia, Sweden and Norway—who have become important to me, but unfortunately, I have inevitably lost touch with some people from my earlier circle of friends. Overall, I feel that our life here has become calmer. One of the most reassuring aspects for me is knowing that I am able to fulfil my professional responsibilities here as well, while contributing to the good reputation of Hungarian physicians abroad. At the same time, it continues to trouble me whether our future grandchildren will speak Hungarian and, if they do, how well they will know their mother tongue.

- Several physicians who once studied or worked in Pécs now live in Sweden. Do you keep in touch with those who work elsewhere?

- We are not in daily contact, as we live and work in different parts of the country, but we do speak occasionally and meet from time to time. For example, I have known the neurosurgeon Dr. András Büki ever since our university days, he was one year ahead of me. We exchanged a few words after he moved to Sweden, although we have not yet met in person. I have, however, met Dr. Gábor Boglári, a paediatric oncologist, on two occasions. His wife, Dr. Andrea Rádler, began her career as a radiology resident at the Department of Radiology in Pécs, then worked in the pharmaceutical industry. She now also works in diagnostic imaging here in Sweden. A few years ago, I also unexpectedly ran into my former colleague from the Department of Radiology, Dr. Orsolya Stefanits, at a Swedish radiology congress.

- You honour the legacy of those who came before you in many ways: you have written about the history of the Department of Radiology in Pécs, regularly participate and give lectures at Hungarian professional conferences, and help organise scientific sessions. Why is this important to you?

- Many people are probably familiar with the famous experiment conducted by the Austrian zoologist and ornithologist Konrad Lorenz, one of the founders of modern ethology. He discovered that, during an early stage of life, newly hatched birds become permanently attached to the first figure they see—even if that figure is a human. He is credited with describing this phenomenon known as imprinting. In many ways, I feel the same: my first workplace was the Department of Radiology in Pécs, where I learned the foundations of my profession, gained my first experience, and achieved professional success as a specialist. All this shaped me profoundly. My senior colleagues set me on my professional path. As a young doctor, I heard many stories about Professor György Benkő, who founded the department. I was employed by his successor, Professor Endre Kuhn, and later worked under the leadership of Professor László Horváth, gaining many memorable personal experiences. Last autumn, to mark the sixtieth anniversary of the department’s foundation, I organised a series of commemorative lectures to express both my gratitude for the support I had received from my predecessors and my respect for those earlier leaders whom I had not known personally. Professor László Horváth often reminded us that we worked at a university clinic, not merely at a county hospital, and that academic spirit inspired me not only to pass on my experience to younger colleagues but also to publish interesting clinical cases in scientific journals rather than just presenting them at lectures.

- How close are you to your former colleagues in Pécs? Do you collaborate with them?

- Fortunately, staying in touch has become much easier in the digital age than it used to be. On a personal level, I have remained in contact with some colleagues since moving to Sweden, including Dr. Zoltán Harmat and Dr. Tamás Rostás, with whom I worked for many years. They joined the department only a few years after I began my own career there. Unfortunately, I now know fewer and fewer radiologists, and because of the reconstruction of the clinical block, the department is no longer located where it used to be.

Since I work at a non-university hospital in Sweden, formal educational collaboration with the University of Pécs is not possible. Nevertheless, for a few years, I had the opportunity to teach again at the Department of Radiology in Pécs. I met Professor Péter Bogner, the then head of department, at a professional conference in Hungary, and I offered to contribute to the Hungarian-language undergraduate general medicine programme. With his approval, I taught practical classes in abdominal radiology to medical students for five or six years, which I truly enjoyed because it was wonderful to relive old memories and stand in front of students once again. I decided to step aside eventually, feeling that it was better for the local colleagues to take over those responsibilities. Even today, I still meet many of them at professional conferences or in the restaurants of Pécs.

- How does it feel to come home?

- Except for the winter months, I return to Baranya quite frequently, usually four or five times a year. The occasion is often provided by conferences organised by the Society of Hungarian Radiologists or the Hungarian Society of Neuroradiology, but I also spend my summer holidays here because my mother lives in Bóly. I am a dual citizen and, in many ways, I have dual roots.

I lived in Baranya until I was about forty-five years old, and although I was born in Mohács, it was Pécs that became the centre of my adult life. That is why it always pains me to leave the city when heading towards the airport. There is no question that Pécs is one of the most beautiful cities in Hungary, and I do my best to convince my Swedish colleagues of that as well.

- Do you also meet up with your former classmates when you are in Pécs?

- Yes, we have run into each other many times in the streets of the city centre or in shopping centres, and I also consider it important to attend our class reunions, which are held every five years. In recent years, I have quite often met Dr. Ágnes Király, who also left the university many years ago and now runs a highly respected private clinic in Pécs. At least a dozen of my former classmates still work at the university; several are now heads of departments, including Professor Péter Than, Professor András Vereckei, and Associate Professor György Sétáló.

- Do you and your family plan to return to Hungary permanently one day?

We do not plan to work in the Hungarian healthcare system again because we have now spent many years working in a less hectic environment. As for our retirement, however, I do not know what the future holds. It is possible that we will divide our time between the two countries, spending part of the year up north and the other half here in Hungary. We no longer own property in Pécs, and real estate prices have risen considerably in recent years, but as the saying goes, “never say never”. Until then, I continue to look at the photographs of Pécs hanging above the desk in the corner of our living room with nostalgia.

Photos:

dr. Csaba Weninger