Croatia: more than a thousand ultras show up to help a hospital transport its baby incubators to a safe place after earthquake destroys maternity section
Once a national emergency hits, people are ready to take action. In Croatia, it's not only the Coronavirus that's been bringing their health system to its knees. Just the other day, Croatia suffered a powerful earthquake whose magnitude reached 5.5 on the Richter scale. The city affected most by the earthquake was Croatia's capital, Zagabria. The amount of destruction that the earthquake caused was quite extensive, practically destroying the entire maternity section of the city's hospital.
Just when it seemed like there was no one around to help the University Hospital Centre salvage its undamaged baby incubators, a group of ultras (radical soccer fans notoriously known for their agressiveness and rowdiness) appeared on scene. With preventitive facemasks on - to protect them from the coronavirus - they helped the hospital transport the incubators to a safe place. Known as the "Bad Blue Boys," they don't always live up to their 'bad boy' name. In fact, it's not even the first time this particular group of ultras have gotten together to help their city out in times of emergency.
As little as a few days prior, these bad boys had helped evacuate and transfer patients to a new clinic after the previous clinic, Dubrava Clinic, experienced an outbreak of the Coronavirus. They even donated sanitary products to the clinic, since it was experiencing a shortage in supplies.
The images taken of the ultras transporting the hospital's incubators to a safe place touched the entire Croation nation. It didn't take long for the rest of the world to see them and be moved as well.
Thanks to these images, taken and posted by croation journalist Dea Redžić with the hashtag "Never Surrender," the world has gotten to see a softer side of soccer's so-called bad boys. We can't wait to see what other selfless deeds these guys will do!
