Everyday heroes honored

An awards ceremony named in honor of a TV journalist who gave his life saving a mother from attack paid homage to everyday heroes for their extraordinary courage.

The Michal Velíšek Prize, named after a TV Nova editor who was fatally shot while defending a mother and young child from assault on Karlovo náměstí in 2005, recognizes the bravery of people who refuse to turn a blind eye when their fellow citizens are in distress.

In Velíšek's honor, the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA), an international charity focused on helping people in need and providing them with the means to take control of their own lives, together with TV Nova, annually organizes "Heroes Among Us" and acknowledge an individual or group for an inspirational act of bravery. The project is under the patronage of Velíšek's widow, Iva Velíšková, and Prague Mayor Pavel Bém.

"The prize is, in fact, a symbol of revolt against apathy," Vítězslav Vurst, ADRA project manager, said at the Dec. 9 ceremony in Prague City Hall. "As a society, we are getting used to injustice instead of justice, evil instead of good and lies instead of truth."

The ADRA Web site asked people to nominate any Czech who had risked his or her life in order to save another over the past 12 months (firemen and police officers were excluded).

The Web site received 60 nominations, of which six were selected in November, and their stories were shown on the TV Nova program "Střepiny" for viewers to vote on.

This year's recipients are cousins Pavel Staňo and Petr Fišer, whose quick thinking saved the life of an injured cyclist.

The cyclist was knocked down by a train and was bleeding heavily from severed arteries in his legs. The cousins, who were near the scene, rushed to him and immediately tied his legs with pieces of clothing to stop the hemorrhaging. Fišer phoned his mother, a paramedic, who instructed him what to do next.

Fišer, 20, described how it happened.

"The most difficult thing was the immediate decision to act, no matter what, to overcome the first emotions and stay calm," he said. "Then, I called my mother and asked for instructions. When I was thinking later on why I did what I did, it was simply out of the belief that it was the right thing to do, and I hope others would help me if I was in the same situation."

Staňo, 19, also had paramedic skills.

"Most of the onlookers were paralyzed, unable to react," he recalled. "Not only were they shocked, but I think most of them did not know what to do. I took a course in first aid to become a break-dance teacher, so I knew what to do, and I just acted. The hardest thing, definitely, was to keep that poor guy conscious, which we did by slapping him once in a while."

Their efforts kept the cyclist alive until an ambulance came, and he was taken to a hospital.

Bém pointed out that sometimes people do not have to be heroes; it is enough to be humans - a point endorsed by Vurst.

"Heroism is not a one-off thing but a lifetime attitude," he said.

Klára Jiřičná can be reached at
kjiricna@praguepost.com