An hour of CPR on an unguarded Ustka beach, and what it says about seasonal pressure on Poland's rescue services

A 78-year-old man pulled unconscious from the Baltic off Ustka survived more than an hour of resuscitation on the sand before being airlifted to hospital in Koszalin. His condition is critical. The stretch of beach where it happened had no lifeguard on duty, and the response drew in four separate services, including crews of the state maritime search and rescue service.

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30 july 2026   |   17:21   |   Source: Radio Gdańsk / Gazeta Morska   |   Prepared by: Michał Iwański   |   Print

fot. Mariusz Jasłowski

The response began with bystanders

The man lost consciousness while swimming at around 12:30, close to beach entrances 20 and 21. He spent several minutes face down in the water before anyone reached him.

Tourists pulled him ashore and began CPR themselves. According to Radio Gdańsk, which cited Katarzyna Czaplicka of Poland's Maritime Search and Rescue Service, volunteers from the water rescue organisation WOPR took over the resuscitation within minutes, followed shortly afterwards by SAR crews and the fire service.

An AED on the sand

The first responders with formal medical equipment were firefighters from the State Fire Service unit in Ustka. Radio Gdańsk quoted Capt. Kamil Padusiński of the Słupsk fire service as saying they took over from the bystanders carrying a medical bag and an automated external defibrillator.

Resuscitation continued for more than an hour and ended with a return of spontaneous circulation. The pulse is weak and the man remains in critical condition. A landing site for the Polish Medical Air Rescue helicopter had to be cleared on the beach at short notice, and the patient was flown to Koszalin.

Police from the Ustka station are establishing the circumstances. Radio Gdańsk reported officers took witness statements and secured the area during the operation, with initial findings indicating the man collapsed while in the sea.

Four services for one shoreline call

The operational detail worth noting for anyone following Baltic rescue capacity is how many organisations converged on a single shoreline incident: volunteer lifeguards, the state fire service, the air ambulance and the national maritime search and rescue service.

SAR exists primarily to cover Poland's search and rescue region at sea, the same assets that respond to casualties on merchant ships, fishing vessels and offshore units. In high summer, along a coastline where holiday traffic concentrates on a handful of resort towns, those assets are also drawn to beach incidents within walking distance of the station. That is not a criticism of the tasking, which is entirely appropriate when a life is at stake. It is a capacity question, and it recurs every July and August.

The unguarded stretch is the substantive point

The incident took place outside a supervised bathing area. That is the single most consequential fact in the case.

Where a lifeguard is on the tower, the interval between a swimmer going under and the start of professional resuscitation is measured in seconds, because someone is watching the water for exactly that. Outside the supervised zone, the same moment has to be noticed by a member of the public, correctly interpreted, and acted on. In Ustka it was. The man is alive because strangers went into the water and started chest compressions, which gave the rescue crews someone to save by the time they arrived.

Uninterrupted bystander compressions are what maintain circulation until a team with a defibrillator arrives. In this case they decided the outcome.

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