On Sunday evening, just before 11:00 p.m., a man in his 40s with a long medical history wanted to take a walk outside. As he left his home in the neighborhood of Yafa an-Naseriyye in Nazareth, he suffered a sudden cardiac arrest and lost consciousness. His worried family members called emergency services for help.
United Hatzalah volunteer EMT Khaled Zayyoud who lives a few blocks away, received the alert from United Hatzalah’s dispatch and command center. “I was in the middle of eating a late dinner when I received the alert,” Khaled recounted. “I immediately called my friend Yazid Anzawi, another United Hatzalah volunteer EMT who runs a local ambulance service in Nazareth, and told him to come as well. I rushed out of my house and arrived at the home of the patient less than two minutes later.”
Khaled found the man collapsed in his doorway and brought him inside to where it would be easier to treat him. A moment later Yazid arrived with his ambulance crew and the team of first responders initiated CPR.
“We checked for vital signs and found none,” Yazid recalled. “I attached a defibrillator as Khaled started compressions. We then opened an IV line and administered fluids while other members of the team administered oxygen. I called dispatch and asked for a mobile intensive care unit to be sent.”
A few minutes after Khaled and Yazid showed up a mobile intensive care ambulance arrived as well and joined the effort to save the man’s life. “We fought for this man’s life for an hour, and we were thankful that we did because, in the end, we succeeded,” explained Yazid. An hour after Khaled and Yazid began CPR the man’s pulse returned and he began breathing on his own. “There were times when I didn’t think that he was going to make it,” said Khaled, “but we persevered and the man survived. The CPR was a success. After the man’s pulse returned he was transported to the English Hospital in Nazareth for further care.”
“I have dedicated my life to helping people and I am glad that we were able to help this man and his family,” Yazid concluded.
Khaled added, “This is what we do, we help those nearby, our neighbors and friends. I can always prepare myself another meal, helping someone else takes precedence. Saving a life is the most important thing one can do, and I am happy that I was able to do it today and help one of my neighbors.”
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