A post is circulating on social media suggesting that a patient in Wrocław died because doctors did not know the Polish language. The information is accompanied by a photo of a doctor’s office door displaying the names of doctors with Eastern Slavic–sounding surnames. The authors of the posts suggest that employing foreign doctors without knowledge of Polish poses a threat to patients.
The fact-checking organization Demagog has already addressed the issue, clearly stating that it is fake news. Despite this, the narrative—along with the same claims—continues to circulate online.
Analysis at a glance
- Online posts suggest that a patient in Wrocław died because doctors “did not know Polish.”
- There are no official confirmations that such an incident occurred.
- The photo of the medical office attached to the posts does not come from Wrocław, and the doctors listed do not work in the same place.
- Demagog verified the case: neither any hospital nor the Patient Ombudsman confirms such an event.
- Doctors’ names are used without any connection to their actual places of employment.
- The narrative relies on emotional messaging to fuel fear toward foreign doctors.
What appeared on social media?
In the shared post, we read:
“A patient died in Wrocław because doctors did not know the Polish language. (…) This is the result of a policy of bringing in cheap staff without real verification of competence and language skills.”
The post is accompanied by a photo of a doctor’s office door with a list of doctors’ names. It is suggested that these doctors did not speak Polish and that their alleged incompetence led to the patient’s death.
Demagog’s assessment
Source: https://demagog.org.pl/fake_news/zmarl-pacjent-we-wroclawiu-czy-lekarze-nie-znali-polskiego/
Demagog proved that this claim is false. There is no evidence that such a situation took place.
In an article dated 18 November 2024, Demagog established that:
- In Wrocław, no case has been confirmed in which communication problems among medical staff led to a patient’s death.
- The Wrocław prosecutor’s office denies that language issues among staff were the cause of the patient’s death.
- Attorney Ilona Kwiecień, representing the family, pointed out that the key issues were the failure to identify asthma and a chaotic rescue operation.
- The Office of the Patient Ombudsman stated that “at no stage of the investigation did information appear about staff from outside Poland.” In 2024 and 2025, no complaints were filed regarding communication with a doctor from outside Poland.
Photo verification
The photo is not credible and appears exclusively on social media. Verification did not reveal any official source confirming its authenticity. It circulates only in private Facebook posts, repeated political and anti-immigration narratives, and without any indication of the hospital, date, circumstances, or the author of the photograph. This suggests that the image serves merely as an illustration of a specific narrative rather than documentation of a real event.
Who are the doctors shown in the photo?
The list of doctors displayed on the door does not reflect a real team working in one location. Verification shows that:
- Dr. Katarzyna Lackowska is a neurologist and aesthetic medicine specialist, but she does not work in Wrocław or with the other doctors listed.
Source: https://femicare.pl/katarzyna-lackowska/ - Volha Tarlouskaya and Anastasiya Bialkovskaya do not appear in official medical registers in Poland and may be private individuals or fictitious persons.
- Liubov Voinovska is an endocrinologist from Toruń, not connected to neurology in Wrocław.
Source: https://www.znanylekarz.pl/liubov-voinovska/lekarz-rodzinny/torun - Katsiaryna Kavalishyna runs a medical practice in Grudziądz and does not work with the other doctors in a single facility.
Sources:
https://www.gowork.pl/praktyka-lekarska-katsiaryna-kavalishyna,27111809/dane-kontaktowe-firmy
https://www.facebook.com/przychodniegrudziadz/posts/serdecznie-zapraszamy-do-naszej-przychodni-centrum-medyczne-ikar-przy-ul-ikara-4/1302452708557587/
Summary
There is no evidence that a patient died in Wrocław due to a language barrier, and the photo used in the posts is unreliable and does not document any real event. Additionally, the doctors shown in the photograph do not work together, and some of the names do not appear in official medical registers at all, indicating that the entire narrative is disinformative in nature. Moreover, this disinformation has been debunked, among others, by Demagog, clearly showing that the material serves only to reinforce a particular storyline rather than reflect facts.