During the opening ceremony of the XXXV World Congress of Audiology that took place in Kajetany on 10 April 2022, Prof. Henryk Skarżyński received a Przemysław Wiktor Odrowąż Pieniążek Medal from the members of the Krakow Section of the Polish Society of Otorhinolaryngologists Head and Neck Surgeons. The Medal was presented by dr. Patryk Hartwich, the Section Chairman from the Department of Otolaryngology of the Jagiellonian University Medical College, and Prof. Jerzy Tomik, Head of that Department.

The Medal was awarded to Prof. Henryk Skarżyński for his entire clinical and scientific activity, which perfectly reflects the motto engraved on the Medal – “Labores pariunt honores,” that is, “Labour Brings Honor.”

It is worth mentioning that Prof. Przemysław Pieniążek was a pioneer in otorhinolaryngology, the first independent researcher in this field in Poland. As the first physician in the world, in 1884, he examined the whole trachea and bronchi in a living human being through a speculum designed by himself (Pieniążek’s funnel) introduced to the tracheal opening in a child after tracheotomy, creating a new procedure – lower tracheo-bronchoscopy. It happened ten years before the application of the direct laryngo- and tracheo bronchoscopy, now named after Gustav Killian.