Posted on 12/08/21
Rishon LeZion - Early Tuesday morning, just after 1:00 a.m., Avraham Yudkowsky, a United Hatzalah volunteer who lives in Givat Ze’ev, was in the middle of a personal trip in Rishon Lezion when he received an alert to a medical emergency occurring a few blocks away from his location. A passerby saw something suspicious and called emergency services to come and check it out.
As Avraham was on his on his way in his car with blinkers flashing, he received a second alert, this time to a cardiac arrest that took place just a few hundred meters from his location on Sedot Street. Avraham quickly turned around on the mostly empty street and passed by an ambulance that had been waiting at the street corner. The ambulance, seeing that Avraham had his lights flashing, called his own dispatch to see if there was an emergency in the area and was given an affirmative answer. Thank to noticing Avraham en route, the ambulance flicked on its lights and also rushed to the location of the cardiac arrest.
As Avraham arrived, he was joined moments later by the ambulance driver who was alone and the pair of EMTs rushed inside the apartment and found a man in his early sixties without a pulse and not breathing. The EMTs attached a defibrillator, began chest compressions and provided the patient with assisted ventilation. Two other United Hatzalah volunteer EMTs both from out of town, Menachem Binder from Beit Shemesh, and Binyamin Greenman from Bnei Brak, arrived a few minutes later and joined the CPR effort.
“The ambulance arrived about 10 minutes after I did with the ambulance driver,” explained Yudkowsky. “We worked together as a team and treated the man and after about 25 minutes from the time we arrived the man’s pulse came back. I was surprised that we succeeded at the CPR even though the defibrillator didn’t give a shock. The man’s blood pressure returned to a very acceptable level and once he was stable enough, we loaded the man into the ambulance to be transported to the hospital.”
Yudkowsky reflected on the rescue. “It’s always uplifting to be able to save a life, but it is especially inspiring to me to work together with United Hatzalah volunteers who all hail from three different cities and save a life in a town that isn’t our own. Being able to respond to any emergency, anywhere, at any time, even when I am in a different city, that really inspires me and I am proud to be a part of such an organization that saves the lives of people across the country, no matter who and no matter where.”