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SZCZECIN, Poland — On October 29, our staff member, the Polish Army Warrant Officer Tomasz Ciesielski, performed CPR on a boy who had been struck by a vehicle. When Tomasz saw the scene of the accident on his usual route to work, he didn't think much — he rushed to help. We wouldn't have known about his prompt action, if one of the witnesses hadn't told us. As for WO Ciesielski himself, he says he only did what was necessary,

"If I see someone needs help, and I know I can aid them, I just help. This is what happened that Thursday. I could see that there was a child lying on the road, but I hadn’t seen the very moment the accident happened. I pulled over and approached a woman standing over the child. I learned that the boy had ridden his scooter right into her car and was knocked down. When I looked at the boy, I noticed that he was getting blue in the face and wasn’t breathing, so I immediately started giving him resuscitation. After a couple of chest compressions, he started breathing again.

I'm a veteran of four missions — three in Afghanistan, one in East Africa. I’ve undergone a number of first aid trainings and this wasn't the first time I could apply this knowledge.

I think I did what I had to do. It was nothing heroic. The very situation lasted a couple of minutes and, as we know, these minutes are the difference between life and death. I just happened to be in the right place at the right time," said WO Tomasz Ciesielski.