On Ukraine’s frontlines, volunteer Polish combat paramedics tend to wounded soldiers

Damian Duda, a Polish tutorial and media employee, was solely 25 when he first went to Ukraine as a volunteer fight paramedic in 2014, work he describes as his “personal campaign”.

Nearly 10 years on, when Russian bombs began falling over Ukrainian cities at first of its invasion, he had constructed up a workforce of six folks with expertise on battlefields as far afield as Iraq and Syria.

They’d additionally began filming their medical missions driving out to the frontlines in Ukraine in a specifically geared up automobile, notching up tens of hundreds of views on social media.

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“Our job is to get the soldier out of the battle, present him with primary medical care, ensure that he doesn’t bleed out… and take him to a comparatively secure place the place ambulances are ready for him,” the 34-year-old advised Reuters in his dwelling metropolis of Warsaw.

He struggled together with his first mission, despite the fact that he had obtained military and medical coaching.

“I used to be very afraid of that take a look at second. I used to be very afraid of being underneath fireplace.”

“The primary time I had this man with severe wounds, it turned out that I saved my cool, I knew behave. It turned out that regardless of the concern, I might management it and turned it into the flexibility to assume logically and make fast choices.”

None of his workforce members obtain compensation for his or her work, he mentioned, and so they all journey to battle zones of their break day from their day jobs.

All of them are from Poland, which homes greater than 1.5 million refugees from its neighbour Ukraine and is a serious provider of arms to Kyiv.

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Duda mentioned he acquired concerned due to a “personal want to assist Ukraine”.

“Then I seen that I had folks round me who wished to do the identical factor as me. And so the group was fashioned.”

If the volunteer paramedics die, the Polish authorities is not going to pay compensation to their households, he mentioned. And it is going to be their households’ duty to move their our bodies again dwelling.

“It’s a nice pageant of sacrifices”, Duda mentioned. “We should, initially, face our households who’re fearful that they’ll lose us.

“We’re all the time sincere with them and say that this certainly can occur… However we’re very motivated.”

Above all, Duda mentioned the battle had taught him to understand the small issues in life.

“Even if you happen to eat a bit of bread, try to be blissful, as a result of, you’ve gotten one thing to eat… You are alive. The celebs shine brighter after such experiences.”