Eliyahu Haliva is a United Hatzalah EMT who lives and serves in the city of Be’er Yaakov, a small city next to Rishon LeTsiyon. Two weeks ago, Eliyahu was studying in a Kollel (Torah study center) on an exceptionally hot day, when he received an alert from United Hatzalah’s Dispatch and Command Center to an emergency that was taking place at a nearby location. A child had been left in a locked car in the heat of the day.

Eliyahu stopped his learning and rushed outside to his E-bike. As he walked outside, Eliyahu felt the heat on his face and understood the great danger in the incident that he had been alerted to.

It was 98-degrees outside when a mother was running an errand. She had left her keys in the car, with her 5-year-old son inside. The worried mother tried to break the window herself and asked for help from the passing strangers, but after 20 minutes with no success, she called United Hatzalah dispatch. Eliyahu arrived two minutes after that.

The experienced EMT pulled up at the scene to find a frantic mother, and the child, locked in the car. The child’s face had begun to turn red, and he was sweating profusely. Eliyahu quickly grabbed his Resqme window breaking tool and used it to shatter the glass of the window. Eliyahu knew that these few seconds were crucial, because children often lose consciousness faster than adults, especially when they are locked in closed heated spaces.

After the window shattered, Eliyahu felt a wave of heat wafting from the car. He reached into the car and unlocked the door, allowing him to pull the half-conscious child out of the car that had quickly turned into an oven.

“When I first saw the child, he looked like he was just about to lose consciousness,” Eliyahu commented. “Everything in my being was telling me that if I had arrived a few minutes later, the child would not have survived, I am glad that I arrived as soon as I did so that I could prevent a major tragedy from occurring.”

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