During the year, there is most likely no week for soldiers of the 8th Krakow Transport Air Base not to fly with organs for transplantation. Sometimes they arrange 2 specified flights 1 day, which requires a immense commitment and cooperation of many services. For its invaluable contribution to the “Action of the Heart” 8 BLTr was awarded the Buzdigan 2024 – the award of the Armed Poland.
For the preparation of 1 flight under ‘Heart Action“ It is essential to participate even about a 100 people,” said Colonel Pil. Sławomir Byliniak, current commander of the 8th Krakow Transport Air Base. The officer utilized to fly for Polish transplantation, and present they are 1 of the specialties of Kraków pilots. – People are active who send a request for the transport of organs, safety services of the mission in the air and on the ground, aircraft crew and maintenance specialists, services: engineering and air traffic, meteorological, air insurance, communications, airport service, as well as an on-call officer and medics: transplantologists and ambulance squad – the commander of 8 BLTr. It is simply a group of people who must be available 24 hours a day, almost 365 days a year. In 2024, the 8 BLTr squad made a evidence number of 104 shares for Polish transplantation.
For the Heart Action 8 BLTr uses C-295M and M28B/PT GC aircraft, whose crews are in a state of readiness to take off within 3 hours of receiving the call – day and night. As the commander of the 8th Base emphasizes, his soldiers are only tiny cogs in a large device that helps save the lives of many patients all year. specified a “machine” must be prepared to act and launched and adapted to any unforeseen situation. And there's plenty of them.
In 1987, pilots from Balic were the first in Poland to safe heart transport from Katowice to Szczecin on board an An-26 aircraft. – Currently, the heart itself is transported in a suitable container, immersed in a peculiar fluid – explains Colonel Tadeusz Krzyda, who faced a completely different reality from contemporary pilots on his first flight in 1987. At the time, he transported not the organ itself, but a 125p station wagon in which a squad of medics kept the heart working in the body of the deceased donor until the organ was collected in the operating area where the recipient was waiting.
A fewer decades later, in October 2024, soldiers were preparing to execute 2 flights as part of the Heart Action 1 day. First they had to transport the organ to a transplant from Wrocław to Warsaw and then wait for Okęcie to have a heart that was expected to save the life of the patient in a completely different Wroclaw clinic. The plan was ready, the time frame was fixed, everyone was watching at the station, but as the plane from Krakow was waiting for the heart in Warsaw, complications arose. The police chopper that was expected to deliver the organ from Podlasie infirmary on Okęta could not land there due to abrupt weather deterioration. Soldiers waited, time was moving out, tension was growing. If it were the liver or the lung, things would look different. But in the case of the heart, there's little time for action. From collection to transplant, it must not be more than 4 hours.
– Fortunately, police have found a way to solve the problem. They flew as far distant as they could and landed safely in the area of Ostrov Mazowiecki. There, police pilots took over an organ from an ambulance convoyd by the service and shortly arrived in Warsaw. The heart passed to us was delivered on time to Wrocław – remembers the pilot (we do not give a name due to the specificity of the service), who then secured 2 combined flights to “The Heart Action”. Military pilots later learned that the patient survived. A short text from the infirmary is simply a tradition after all flight. - We don't know the patient's records. The transplanters do not thank us personally, but we do not anticipate it. We have adequate information that we have succeeded – the pilot emphasizes.
However, this has not always been the case. At the beginning of the action, pilots too organs and medics besides transported patients waiting for the transplant. 1 of these flights mentions Colonel Pil after more than 20 years. Sławomir Bylik: – I remember that the man was very afraid and sad. Then 1 of our crew members told him that erstwhile our crew is flying with a heart, all transplants take place. In these words he comforted the patient very much. After landing, we hugged him, encouraged him, and then received a message from the doctors that everything had worked out.
Flights with transplant organs are very demanding and affect quite a few responsibility. Soldiers of the 8th BLTR emphasize that during peacetime they are 1 of the most crucial missions they perform. There's nothing more crucial than saving lives. The fact that we can contribute, although we are not doctors, gives us large satisfaction – adds 1 of the Kraków pilots.
– The full engagement of the 8th BLT soldiers in securing the “heart action” has translated into 104 flights with the most valuable cargo on board in 2024 – concludes Colonel Pil. This is an absolute evidence (in 2023 8 BLTR realised their 69), which was possible thanks to the professionalism and experience of soldiers from the Kraków-Balice barracks and airfield complex. akin Hospital flights The soldiers of 33 Transport Aviation Base from Powidzód and 43 Naval Aviation Base in Gdynia-Babi Doła are besides secured, but 8 BLT TR performs about 80% of specified tasks in Poland.
