Romanian paramedics have once again demonstrated their exceptional skills and teamwork by winning first place at the World Rescue Challenge 2025 held in Karlovac, Croatia. The event brought together elite first responders and trauma teams from across the globe to compete in rigorous trauma and extrication challenges.
This year, the Romanian team from Bucharest, with 17 years of collaboration experience, excelled in the highly demanding competition. They secured four awards, including first place in the overall trauma event, a shared first place with Portugal in the new trauma triage team event, second place in the trauma complex scenario, and second place in the trauma standard scenario. This achievement marks the fourth consecutive year Romania has earned a podium spot at the Challenge.
The competition tested participants’ abilities to manage trauma under pressure in lifelike scenarios, involving live casualties, and to safely extricate victims with strong leadership, communication, and medical expertise. According to Lucian Tătaru and Valentin Cimpoeru, the veteran SMURD paramedics representing Romania, their success was boosted by strong teamwork and intense preparatory training. Remarkably, the team’s collaboration with Portuguese counterparts during the event was seamless, highlighting the shared operational style and mutual support between the experts from the two countries.
Months of rigorous training preceded the event, led by trainer Ionuț Ioțe, who emphasised the use of realistic, improvised scenarios to prepare the team for the unpredictable nature of emergency interventions.
This outstanding performance reinforces Romania’s status as a leader in emergency medical response and paramedic expertise on the international stage.
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