Mariusz Błaszczak handed the accolades to military medics at a ceremony in Warsaw on Wednesday, public broadcaster Polish Radio’s IAR news agency reported.
The defence minister said: “I thank all the soldiers who were on duty in Turkey aiding the earthquake victims. Thank you for your generosity and for your commitment.”
He added: “This is an expression of our solidarity. I also received words of gratitude for your service from Turkey.”
The Polish army medics travelled to Turkey on February 8, and spent two weeks helping earthquake survivors at a specially built field hospital in the southern town of Göksun, the IAR news agency reported.
'We managed to help 725 people in Turkey'
Błaszczak, who is also a deputy prime minister, said that the Polish team had provided assistance to more than 700 patients.
The team’s head, Lt. Col. Konrad Sieradzki, thanked Błaszczak for the awards and said: “We managed to help 725 people in Turkey over these two weeks. Initially, the conditions were very difficult, but we stuck to our task.”
Sieradzki added: “We provided first aid on the ground to people who were injured in this earthquake.”
Meanwhile, Lt. Elżbieta Surdek, an army doctor who took part in the Polish mission, said that most of the quake victims had been suffering from acute stress.
She told the ceremony: “These people went without sleep, without food, without drink. They were living in cars parked outside buildings which had either collapsed or were in danger of collapsing. Many of them had burns, injuries, fractures or infections. Also, some people were in a life-threatening condition, for instance following a heart attack.”
Surdek said: “Helping them gave us enormous satisfaction. The smallest patient was three months old.”
(pm/gs)
Source: IAR, PAP, trojka.polskieradio.pl