On Tuesday afternoon just before 2:00 P.M., passersby called for help after a man in his 60s collapsed and lost consciousness outside a store on HaShdera HaMerkazit in Modi’in.

United Hatzalah volunteer EMT Pnina Peretz was working from home a few blocks away from the scene when she received an alert on her communications device notifying her about the nearby emergency. She quickly got into her car and raced to the scene, where she found a man in his 60s lying on the floor, pulseless and gasping. Workers from the municipality security patrol had attached a defibrillator and already administered one shock but had not performed chest compressions. Pnina immediately initiated chest compressions and began a rotation with the security personnel. The volunteer attached her bag valve mask to the patient’s mouth, pressing on the BVM at regular intervals in order to provide assisted ventilation.

More first responders quickly arrived at the scene, including a United Hatzalah ambulance staffed by volunteer EMTs Avi Dublinger and Matar Adiv, a doctor from a local emergency medical center, and a mobile intensive care unit. The mobile intensive care crew attached a heart monitor, while Pnina, Avi, and Matar, continued providing chest compressions and assisted ventilation with the rest of the medical personnel at the scene.

After two more shocks were administered, the EMT performing the compressions suddenly felt resistance as the patient regained a pulse and some level of consciousness, and started breathing again on his own just mere minutes after Pnina arrived at the scene. The patient, who was now stabilized, was transported to the hospital for further treatment.

Pnina reflected after the incident and said: “When you go from being the first EMT at the scene of a cardiac arrest to being able to transfer a stable patient with a pulse and breathing, it’s an incredible feeling. It’s literally saving a life.”

Avi added: “I had the privilege of helping revive a man this afternoon and delivering a healthy baby later in the evening. A day in the life of an EMT doesn’t always look this way, but I’m really grateful that today it did.”

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