On Monday morning at around 7:30 a.m, an older woman suffered a cardiac arrest on Matityahu Street in the town of Gan Yavneh. Worried family members called emergency services for help. Seconds later, United Hatzalah volunteer EMTs Tal Mor and Eran Leibovich received an alert on their communication devices.  

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United Hatzalah volunteers responding to an emergency (illustration)

Tal was driving down Route 4 on his way to work when the alert came in. He was passing by the Gan Yavne intersection and was pinged as one of the closest first responders to the scene of the emergency. Tal made a sharp right turn into the town and arrived at the location within 3 minutes.

 

As Tal ran through the doorway of the house he found a family member was performing CPR on the 80-year-old woman. Tal connected his defibrillator and took over the CPR efforts.

 

Eran received the alert, while he was in his home a few streets over in the town itself. He had just returned home from dropping his son off at daycare. Without hesitating, he grabbed his car keys, raced back outside, and drove over to the neighboring home, arriving just moments after Tal.

 

“It always amazes me how things work out,” said Eran in retrospect, “While today I worked from home, usually at this hour I’m already headed to work and far out of town.”

 

After a few minutes of Tal and Eran performing CPR, two more EMTs and a paramedic arrived with the intensive care ambulance, increasing the rescue team to a group of five first responders. The combined team put forth incredible efforts to resuscitate the woman. They alternated performing rounds of chest compressions with artificial respiration, while the paramedic administered medications and intubated the woman. Twenty minutes into the resuscitation, the woman finally reacted to the procedures, and a viable pulse was regained. Once the woman was stable enough, she was transported in the ambulance to the nearest hospital for further care.

 

“I hope she recovers quickly and regains her health,” wished Tal after the incident. “I am happy and proud to have once again been a part of another successful resuscitation. Thankfully we had a good team, worked together well and the results were positive.”

 

“It was a tough CPR but thank G-d, we got through it and successfully brought back a pulse,” said Eran. “The incident energized me this morning and made a really great start to the day. It’s always a great feeling helping others, especially those who are part of my community. I’m just glad I was around and able to help.”

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