Municipal guards and emergency teams fought for nearly an hour to save a severely hypothermic man in Warsaw’s Wawer district on January 14.
Discovery of the Victim
On Wednesday, January 14, at around 20:55, municipal guards from the VII Territorial Division arrived at the scene of a dramatic call in the Wawer district. The reporting person noticed a man lying in the street who was not moving. A man around 40 years old was found hanging limply from a plastic sand box with no signs of life, his body cold and without breath or pulse.
Immediate Response
The guards requested urgency via radio, immediately beginning resuscitation. Junior Inspector Jacek Szostakiewicz stated: “We knew that in a hypothermia situation, vital functions are difficult to detect.” They quickly took a defibrillator from their patrol car and began resuscitation.
Extended Efforts
Until emergency services arrived, municipal guards performed chest compressions for over 20 minutes, taking turns and following the device’s instructions. One officer described: “Those were minutes, but they seemed like an eternity.” Soon an ambulance arrived, and officers helped transport the man to be connected to professional diagnostic equipment.
Medical Condition and Outcome
The victim was in a state of deep hypothermia with a body temperature of 26.5°C. Resuscitation continued using a mechanical chest compression system. After several dozen minutes, the approximately 40-year-old man was taken to the hospital. The circumstances of this dramatic incident will be investigated by police.
Municipal Guard Training
Warsaw’s Municipal Guard has 140 officers with rescue qualifications. For over a month, municipal guards have been using 100 portable AED defibrillators purchased through the citizens’ budget. All officers receive regular first aid training to prepare them for using this equipment.
