On Sunday morning, a 100-year-old woman suffered a sudden cardiac arrest in her home on Ilona Feher Street in Holon. Her caregiver came to check on her and when she entered the woman’s room, the caregiver found the elderly woman lying on the floor unconscious, not breathing, and without a pulse. The caregiver immediately called emergency medical services for help and alerted the family.

Chen Bador, a United Hatzalah EMT volunteer who lives nearby, was at home when his proximity alert went off alerting him about the emergency. Chen immediately left his house and got onto his ambucycle, and drove to the location of the woman’s home, arriving less than three minutes later.

Chen was the first responder at the scene along with another EMT, when the two got into the apartment they immediately started chest compressions along with assisted ventilation, while attaching a defibrillator. A few minutes afterward, two ambulances arrived one of which was a mobile intensive care unit arrived, and began providing the woman with medications and advanced CPR procedures.

The daughter of the woman was hysterical and very overwhelmed. Chen, who is additionally a psychotrauma and crisis response unit (PCRU) volunteer, upon seeing enough other responders providing CPR, went to provide psychological first aid to the daughter and stabilized her psychologically while grounding her in the moment. After talking with Chen, the daughter was able to cope with the situation at hand and returned to assist the medical team by providing them with the medical background information they needed for her mother.

After a few more rounds of chest compressions, the woman’s pulse returned, much to the relief of the woman’s family and the combined EMS personnel. After which she was transported to a nearby hospital to continue her care.

Reflecting on the incident, Chen recounted: “The reason why I became an EMT volunteer is to help people by doing acts of lovingkindness for those around me. Whoever is in need of help, I help. It’s a wonderful feeling to help the people in need and fulfill the commandment of saving someone’s life.’’