On Sunday night just before 10:00 p.m., a man in his 30s was jogging down HaKnesset Street in Givatayim when he suffered a sudden cardiac arrest and collapsed on the street. Worried onlookers who witnessed the collapse began performing CPR and called emergency services for help. 

United Hatzalah volunteer EMT Dan Gildoni was relaxing at home just 80 meters away when he received the emergency alert. He rushed downstairs, jumped on his ambucycle, and raced to the scene. When he arrived he attached a defibrillator and took over compressions. A few seconds later the defibrillator finished analyzing the patient and recommended a shock. Dan administered the shock and then launched into another round of compressions. The situation repeated and Dan administered a second shock. After the third round of compressions, other responders began to arrive. 

 

A mobile intensive care ambulance arrived and the paramedic administered some medication and attached the man to a heart monitor. Shortly thereafter the man’s pulse returned. Dan helped the ambulance crew load the patient on board the ambulance to be transported to the hospital. 

 

“I only began the process of helping to save this man’s life,” said Dan after the fact. “I don’t know what the final outcome will be, but his situation is a lot better now than when I found him. We managed to bring back his pulse and get him breathing once again, but he still has a long way to go to make a full recovery, and I wish him a full recovery because that is the goal of what we do, we want to save people and have them go back to their families and their lives. I am thankful I was able to be a part of helping this man even though I don’t know what the final outcome will be.” 

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