46-year-old Vered Amir and 55-year-old Yossi Amir are a married couple who both volunteer as  United Hatzalah EMTs. They live and volunteer in Rosh HaAyin, a city located in central Israel and near a major Highway junction. Vered works at Meir hospital in Kfar Saba, while Yossi works in a high-tech company. When the two are not busy at work, they are responding to medical emergencies in their neighborhood and throughout the city of Rosh HaAyin, Vered as a midwife and Yossi as an EMT.

Last week on Monday, just after 4 a.m., the couple received an emergency alert to an active labor taking place a few minute drive away from their location. Determined to help others, Vered jumped out of bed and threw on her United Hatzalah vest. Yossi, always the supportive husband and dedicated first responder, joined his wife, rushed to their car, and raced to the given address.

 

Arriving in just under four minutes, the two found a mobile intensive care unit (MICU) ambulance on the scene. The ambulance station was in close proximity to the location of the emergency and had managed to arrive just prior to the Amirs. 

 

Upon entering the apartment, Vered and Yossi found the woman who had already given birth to a baby boy. Immediately recognizing Vered, the frantic mother urged the crew to hand her newborn to Vered. Yossi checked the woman’s vital signs and helped with the afterbirth. 

 

The mother, despite being post-birth, did not want Vered and Yossi to leave her side, and so they stayed and comforted her until she was put in the ambulance and taken to the nearest hospital.

“Whenever I respond to an emergency at night, my husband accompanies me whenever he can,” commented Vered. “Volunteering with one’s significant other is a blessing. When my husband joined United Hatzalah two years ago, I wanted to join as well. Yossi and I work a lot and getting the chance to volunteer together, to help deliver a baby together, is really one of the greatest things a couple can do together While there are plenty of other couples who choose to separate EMT life from family life, for us, it is something that we enjoy doing together and helps us grow closer. The fact is that United Hatzalah is really one large extended family. People know each other and volunteers, who often don’t even know each other that well, treat each other like family. Responding as a nuclear family inside the larger family of United Hatzalah is something that we are both grateful for. I am glad that we have the opportunity to enrich our lives as a couple by saving the lives of others, together.”

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