United Hatzalah Medic Dani Shmueli: “Each of our medics took 3 to 4 babies at a time so that we could evacuate them.”
United Hatzalah first responders provided emergency medical care on Monday to a group of infants and children following a suspected carbon monoxide poisoning incident at a day care center located within a residential apartment complex in the Romema neighborhood of Jerusalem.
United Hatzalah volunteer EMTs, paramedics, ambulance crews, and members of the organization’s Psychotrauma and Crisis Response Unit arrived on scene within minutes of receiving the first emergency call at approximately 12:20PM. Multiple calls came into United Hatzalah’s Dispatch Center from the same location indicating that multiple infants and young children were unwell, with two e reportedly having lost consciousness.
Upon arrival, responders encountered a complex medical scene involving dozens of children inside the facility.
Two infants were found unconscious in separate rooms. United Hatzalah medics immediately initiated advanced lifesaving measures, including CPR and resuscitation efforts, before evacuating both infants by ambulance to nearby hospitals in critical condition.
EMT Ze’ev Klein, a United Hatzalah first responder, who cared for the unconscious infants on the scene recalled: “I arrived and began performing CPR on a four-month-old female infant who had lost consciousness in the living room. A male infant was then found unconscious in a bedroom. I began to resuscitate him as well, including administrating shocks with a defibrillator. Both infants were transported to the hospital in critical condition.”
Aside from these two critical cases, United Hatzalah medical teams treated and transported more than 20 children, all conscious and in stable condition, to local hospitals for further evaluation and observation.
United Hatzalah EMT Dani Shmueli said: “We needed to wake some of the babies that were sleeping and then each of our medics took 3 to 4 babies at a time so that we could evacuated them.”
In addition to the medical care provided on scene, United Hatzalah Psychotrauma & Crisis Response Unit volunteers were ensuring that both children and parents were emotionally stable. Reporting from the scene, United Hatzalah EMT and Psychotrauma volunteer Daniel Katzenstein said:
“Aside from providing the appropriate medical care for these children, we were concerned that the children should not be left unattended in the cold weather and in a scary chaos that surrounded them. The evacuation was therefore quick and efficient. We worked with parents to locate and reunite them with their babies.”
United Hatzalah took several parents to the hospital that their child was taken to for further medical care.
According to news reports, after arrival at the hospital, two of the infants died from the exposure to a dangerous substance. It is United Hatzalah’s mission, in any emergency, to provide fast, professional and free medical care to all those affected.
