IRVINE : Injured Bosnian Out of Hospital, Resting

A Bosnian man who arrived here last month to receive medical treatment for a grenade wound has been released from the hospital and is resting this week at a host family’s home.

Doctors released Mustafa Pajevic, 42, from Irvine Medical Center last week after performing exploratory surgery on his wounded leg, which had become infected.

He will remain on antibiotics for a month, and doctors will decide in September whether more surgery is required. Hospital spokeswoman Abby Lovell on Tuesday listed Pajevic in good condition.

Pajevic’s lower left leg was shattered more than a year ago in a grenade explosion in Sarajevo. He was airlifted to California as part of Operation Second Chance, a medical relief effort that matches victims of the war with American doctors.

Hospital officials said Pajevic was reluctant to seek treatment in the United States because it meant leaving his wife and two sons in Bosnia. Just months before Pajevic’s trip to Irvine, one of his sons was wounded in a grenade explosion.

Lovell said she was not sure when Pajevic will return to Bosnia. For now, he is living somewhere in Orange County as the guest of a family that wishes to remain anonymous.

Pajevic, who walks with the aid of crutches, is one of 19 injured Bosnians who arrived last month in the United States for treatment under Operation Second Chance.