GHAZNI PROVINCE, Afghanistan - Polish paramedics from Combat Outpost Giro in Ghazni province provides local Afghans with medical care nearly every day.
With no medical facility in the Giro District, many local inhabitants bring their wounded or ill to the coalition forces base. Sometimes, Polish paramedics visit people in their homes while on patrols.
According to Polish army Cpl. Paulina Frynas, a Task Force White Eagle paramedic, this is especially helpful to female patients because they are not typically brought to the COP for treatment.
“Once we received information about an injured woman, but her family refused to bring her to the COP, so we visited her while patrolling the vicinity. We treated fairly serious wounds and left some medicines. When, after some time, we saw her again, it turned out, that it helped. The woman was very grateful. Such moments give us the strength for the next day’s work," said Frynas.
However, Polish army Michal Dabrowski, a civilian paramedic, said there are a lot of difficult moments in the medics’ work. Often in a few seconds paramedics have to make difficult decisions that affect the prognosis and further treatment of the patient.
"In this profession you can not hesitate, because nobody would trust you any more. In the moments of uncertainty, we must act in accordance with the procedures as we were taught. We must also turn off emotions, otherwise we could not help," said Dabrowski.