Surgeon ‘undoubtedly saved’ Krakow officer’s life, colleague says

A surgeon who treated a police officer shot during a mass shooting in central Krakow “undoubtedly” saved his life, the surgeon’s colleague says. The doctors were eating near the city’s Main Market Square when a gunman opened fire on Saturday, killing six people and injuring 15.

Professor Michał Pędziwiatr and Dr Mateusz Wierdak rushed to help the attacker and two officers wounded while stopping him. Pędziwiatr said Wierdak treated an officer who had been shot in the chest, packing the wound with bandages and applying pressure with his hands as they waited for an ambulance.

“If not for that, I don’t know how things would have turned out, as there was a long wait for the ambulance,” Pędziwiatr told Polish news outlet Fakt. He said he called John Paul II Hospital and urged staff to take the officer there because he believed specialists there offered the best chance of survival.

The two officers, identified as Jakub Kulik and Artur Morański, emerged from comas on Sunday. Poland’s prime minister praised them as heroes for preventing further deaths.

The shooting began shortly before 15:00 local time on Saturday and lasted about three minutes, police say. The victims included a British national, an Austrian woman and four Poles. The 24-year-old suspect remains in a critical condition; prosecutors have opened a terrorism investigation.

Interior Minister Marcin Kierwiński said “everything suggests” the suspect was fascinated by far-right ideologies and held ultra-nationalist views. The suspect has not been named by authorities. The bodies of his parents and sister were found when his home was searched.

Pędziwiatr said that, once the shooting stopped, he treated other victims and the attacker. “When it comes to saving lives, it doesn’t matter who is who,” he told Fakt.

Six Dublin Civil Defence volunteers also helped injured people, according to Irish broadcaster RTÉ. The volunteers, who were visiting the city, provided CPR and help to control bleeding.