The Need for Speed - One Couple Aims to Raise Funds for New EMS Vehicle to Cut Down Response Time in Their Community

A hardworking and veteran EMS couple, Kobi and Avigail Brillman, are undertaking the challenge of lowering EMS response times in their community. The couple, who live in the town of Kochav Yaakov in the Binyamin region, have been dedicated EMS volunteers for more than 10 years. Kobi is an EMT while Avigail is a paramedic and both work with Israel’s national volunteer EMS organization United Hatzalah. 
 
The couple has begun a campaign to raise money to donate a new ambucycle for their community. Currently, Kobi, who is an ambucycle rider, has a vehicle that requires extensive upkeep and constant repairs. Additionally, the vehicle cannot be ridden by both volunteers at the same time, due to its age and lack of ability to properly carry two riders at high speeds. Thus
Avigail is often forced to head out to emergency calls in the family car, something that adds significantly to her response time. Being that she is the senior responder, her arrival at the scene is even more critical than that of Kobi’s on most occasions. In an effort to cut down on both of their response times, the couple is putting in every effort to obtain a faster ambucycle, one which will allow Avigail to join together with Kobi when he rides out to respond to emergencies. 
 
The couple, which has two children, respond on average to 3-4 emergencies per day. They have a deal with their neighbors that if they need to head out the neighbors will watch their children who are both under the age of three. 
 
The town that they live in, is located in an area that has a large distance between towns and is not located in close proximity to a hospital. Immediate EMS response is something that saves lives continually, and the pair has dedicated their lives to help save others. Another issue in the area is the constant traffic jams which plague the highways outside of the town. When an accident occurs roads are blocked for miles, something which makes responding by a car all the more difficult. 
 
“The area we live in suffers from constant traffic jams,” said Kobi. “An ambucycle is an incredibly powerful tool in order to cut down response time and get through traffic. It can take ambulances up to 30 minutes to arrive at the scene of an accident because of the situation on the roads. Our first response within just a few minutes saves lives on the roads and at home,” he added. 
 
Kobi recalled an incident that occurred one Friday afternoon when he was traveling with his wife nearby the town of Adam. “We received an alert that there was an accident up ahead of us on the highway, and we witnessed the traffic backing up as a result. We were on my bike and even though we had to drive slowly because the ambucycle cannot drive at high speeds with both of us on it, we were able to weave through the traffic and arrive long before other responders.”  
 
The casualty incident in this particular accident was high. “There were nine injured people spread across three vehicles,” recalled Kobi. Four of the injured people were semi-conscious and lying on the street. We began treating them but the patients waited at the scene for 40 minutes before the first ambulance was able to arrive. Had we not been nearby Aviagail would not have been able to come with me and they would have had to wait even more time before any ALS responders could have arrived.”    
 
Avigail also expressed her ambition regarding the new vehicle. “A faster model of ambucycle will allow us to be able to head out to more calls that are further away, arrive there faster, and treat urgent as well as regular cases,” she said. “Our current situation has Kobi able to arrive via ambucycle for most cases while  I get stuck in traffic jams. The ambucycle is a necessary tool which allows both of us as responders to ride together and provide EMS services much faster and help increase the future life quality of the patient who needs treatment and often even to save their lives.” 
 
Avigail also illustrated other characteristics of the ambucycle that allows the couple to cut down EMS response time. “An ambucycle allows us to simply park the vehicle and go help, we don’t have to worry about blocking traffic or parking the vehicle and that often cuts down a few minutes as well. We are happy and thankful to United Hatzalah for the ability to join together with them and save lives. We are always interested in helping others and we need your help to do so.”