site.btaBulgaria Marks National Salvation Day Honouring Fallen Rescuers
Marking National Salvation Day on Friday with the wail of sirens and a minute of silence, Sofia’s Military Medical Academy paid tribute to all doctors, nurses, police officers, volunteers, and citizens who have died while saving human lives. Wreaths and flowers were laid at the Monument to the Medical Officers Who Died in War. The ceremony was attended by Health Minister Silvi Kirilov, Defence Minister Atanas Zapryanov, National Health Insurance Fund Governor Petko Stefanovski, Ventsislav Mutafchiyski, head of the Medical Military Academy in Sofia, as well as representatives of other institutions, doctors, and medical specialists.
In Bulgaria, National Salvation Day has been marked since 2005 with the support of the Military Medical Academy and in cooperation with the Health Ministry, Bulgarian Medical Association, Bulgarian Red Cross and trade unions, in memory of Stefan Cherkezov MD, who died on August 15, 1963, at the age of 26, rescuing 47 people from a burning bus.
The names of over 130 doctors and 20 nurses are known to have perished in the line of duty, most after performing gruelling overnight surgeries, in ambulance crashes, or from contracting diseases from their patients. Also listed are police officers, mine rescuers, and ordinary citizens who lost their lives while saving others.
Mutafchiyski noted that since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, more than 150 doctors, nurses, physician assistants, and ambulance drivers have been added to the roll of honour, medical workers who treated coronavirus patients to the very end, but ultimately lost their own battle for life.
/KT/
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