Providing first aid in areas affected by devastating natural disasters, similar to the earthquake in Turkey and Syria on February 6, implies a complex response, explains Dr. Vitan Vitanov, surgery specialist and co-founder of the “Academy First Aid” association, which also offers training for the profession of a paramedic. "In order to reach people in distress and provide first aid, someone must have paved the way for doctors. The medical team is almost the last to come to this site, because it must be secured," explains the specialist.

Are the Bulgarian paramedic ‎teams sufficiently prepared and quick to react in a crisis situation?‎

"I can give an example with the people with whom we have worked - some of them have already gone to these disaster areas”, says Dr. Vitanov. “These people respond, they are trained and ready for this thing and they do not hesitate to put their own lives at risk in order to save people who have been hurt in such disasters. I personally have a very high opinion of these people and I hope they never apply what they have learned, especially on Bulgarian territory. But if necessary, I believe there will be no compromise.”

In Bulgaria, the profession of a paramedic is still unchartered territory, although it is officially registered and unified with European standards, says Dr. Vitan Vitanov. He believes that adding more well-trained paramedics to emergency response teams will improve the time and response to incidents, whether it's a car crash, a house call or a natural calamity. ‎

‎"The role of a paramedic is to provide emergency care. They must arrive as quickly as possible on the scene of the accident and are part of the emergency teams," adds Dr. Vitanov. ‎

However, can paramedics replace doctors in an emergency?

"In other European countries and in the USA, the tendency is for the emergency teams to include less and less highly specialized personnel such as doctors, and most often a team of a doctor and a paramedic or even two paramedics for milder cases is formed", Dr.Vitanov explains. According to him, this practice increases the resources of the teams and allows covering a greater number of emergency calls. In addition, according to the expert: ..."the doctor in the ambulance cannot do much more than a paramedic following the first aid protocol".‎

What is the profile of people who choose the profession of  a paramedic in Bulgaria?

"Most often, people choose the profession of a paramedic as an opportunity to get a new training, even though they come from fields of employment that are completely different from medicine - architects, engineers, etc.. But within the framework of a year of in-depth training , starting with anatomy, Latin language, clinical specialties and traumatism, I can say that they are extremely useful on site," points out Dr. Vitanov Osve and adds that the chances of people who have completed a paramedic training course to find a suitable job after that are high.

"Bulgarian paramedics are well-trained, ready and with adequate response on site, and it would be good if they could join the emergency teams more and more," concludes Dr. Vitanov.