On Sunday morning, a man in his early 40s suffered an irregular heart arrhythmia on Awad Street in the village of Tamra in northern Israel and collapsed on the street. Worried bystanders called medical services for help.

Sbri Diab, a United Hatzalah volunteer EMT, was at work when he received the alert from United Hatzalah’s Dispatch and Command Center about the medical emergency. Sbri immediately left work and drove his work car to the emergency. Sbri arrived along with a private mobile intensive care ambulance. Together with the paramedics, Sbri found the man lying unconscious on the ground with no pulse and not breathing and initiated CPR.

Sbri attached a heart monitor to the man’s chest, administered an electrical shock, and took an EKG reading.

The combined EMS team continued CPR while administering 5 shocks and 5 doses of adrenaline. After a few minutes, additional volunteers from United Hatzalah arrived and joined in the effort to save the man’s life. After approximately 40 minutes the team was successful and the man regained his pulse. Sbri continued providing the man with assisted ventilation while he was being loaded into the ambulance.

The paramedics opened an IV line and the man was transferred shortly after to Bnei Zion Medical Center for further care.

Sbri recounted after the incident ended: ‘’I’m glad the man regained consciousness, we worked hard trying to save the man. It’s very satisfying to see a patient regain life after what seems like death for a long time. It’s very exciting and a great relief to be able to save a life. We don’t have many ambulances in the north, and most of the ones that are here belong to private ambulance companies. This is one of the reasons I decided to join United Hatzalah so that I could help save people until the ambulance arrives.’’

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