"The trip to Sweden was actually a bit adventurous - and that confirmed to me that it's unhealthy for me here. Already when I was leaving for Sweden, when we were crossing the border, it was preceded by a security check. Gentlemen came there, one had such a box on his neck and apparently there he had various dates stacked in it. And I was already in his computer. As soon as he arrived - yes, that's the one - all the passengers had to get out of the compartment. The curtains were drawn and a personal search followed. I mean a personal search to the naked. I thought, 'Guys, I'm not coming back here.' I have already left for Sweden, saying that there is no going back for me. I saw that I was very interesting for them."
"In Holesov, there was an airborne regiment. Soviet troops appeared in front of the gates of the airborne regiment, they wanted to go inside. And the troops who were there said no. It worked in advance. The commander of the unit led a substantial part of the regiment to the training area in Pálavské vrchy. They did it perfectly there. They knew the terrain like no other. The Russians couldn´t get them there, no one could. So, the unit was in two places. Partly in Pálavské vrchy, partly in the barracks. And the fact is that no Russian troops have ever entered the barracks or the area where they were spread out."
"From my unit in Nové Město, where I ended my career [as a military doctor], our unit was directly disbanded because we tried active resistance. Because Náchod - there is a pass, there is a customs house. So is Trutnov. We used what we had. There were so-called “UŽASy”, it was a universal engineering machine. It was a car with a huge spoon that picked up something. We then did huge deals with it with South America, they took it there… These engineering machines were manufactured in Nové Město, in that factory. We had it all at hand. That's how the barricades were built there."
Collector: "Actually, we did not mention that in Nové Město, when the fraternal armies invaded in 1968, that no one had broken through the barricades that were built there."
"These were those “UŽASy”. There were burning barricades at the border. To get through that, it was difficult. The burning barricades were fed with tires, which were manufactured in Rubena Náchod. It was like 'Verkehr' and fire was made there with it. And they didn't really go through there. That was a good role. That was another thing that counted to our unit, because it was our unit that operated all this. We had the technology to deliver it there. Therefore, shortly after our 'liberation', we ended up as a unit. The army left, the officer corps was disbanded, the chief of staff started selling pastry rolls over there with his wife. I don't know where the battalion commander ended up. In the meantime, I fell ill, I was assigned to a rehabilitation institute in Slapy, and there I learned that I should join the ÚVN (Central Military Hospital). So, I joined ÚVN."
Doc. MUDr. Jan Pokorný, DrSc., Was born on December 28, 1939 in Náchod into a teaching family. His parents were eager members of the Sokol club and took part in the anti-Nazi resistance. His father died in 1944 and Jan and his sister were raised by his mother, who also took care of her disabled sister and grandparents. Because she did not have the money for Jan’s university studies, he decided to study military medicine at the Jan Evangelista Purkyně Military Medical Academy in Hradec Králové, where the living costs of the students were covered by the state. After graduating in 1963, he served in several military units, including paratroopers. It was the cooperation with the paratroopers that enabled him to develop his competencies in the field of emergency medicine, and he participated several times in saving the lives of Czechoslovaks in extreme conditions abroad. For example, he was part of a rescue team that went to seek Czechoslovak citizens kidnapped in Angola in 1983. In August 1968, he served in a unit in Nové Město nad Metují, which resisted the invasion of Warsaw Pact troops and put barricades in the way of occupying troops. As a result, the unit was disbanded and Jan Pokorný was transferred to the Central Military Hospital (ÚVN) in Střešovice in Prague, where he worked until his civilian career in 1986 in the department of anesthesiology and reanimation. He researched alternative methods of anesthesia and the development of lung ventilators for extreme conditions, later also building new ARO units at the Central Hospital, Na Františku Hospital and Na Homolce Hospital. Before 1989 he emigrated briefly to Sweden, but just after November 17, 1989 he returned to Czechoslovakia. After 1989, he also occupied himslef with postgraduate education and rescue education at the Faculty of Biomedical Engineering of the Czech Technical University.
On an internship in the first Anesthesiology and Reanimation Department in the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, Na Františku Hospital - view of the headquarters, circa 1969
On an internship in the first Anesthesiology and Reanimation Department in the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, Na Františku Hospital - view of the headquarters, circa 1969
Preparing Anesthesiology and Reanimation Department at the Military Central Hospital in Střešovice, 1973, the field servo fan on the right, in the development of which JP participated, the patient jack on the left
Preparing Anesthesiology and Reanimation Department at the Military Central Hospital in Střešovice, 1973, the field servo fan on the right, in the development of which JP participated, the patient jack on the left
