Early Wednesday afternoon, a young girl, (approximately 3 years old) drowned in a private pool at a residential home in Dimona. Family members who found the girl pulled her out of the pool and called emergency services for help. 

Husband and wife Zion and Rachel Rozilio, both of whom are United Hatzalah EMTs, received the proximity alert on their communication devices notifying them about the emergency. “We were sitting at home eating lunch with our children when we got the alert,” Zion explained. “We rushed to our car and drove to the address just a few blocks away. The mother was standing outside and quickly ushered us into the house. When we found the young girl she was already blue.” 

After checking for a pulse and finding none, Rachel began compressions on the young girl’s chest, while Zion connected a bag valve mask (BVM) and began providing assisted ventilation. “We were the first responder to arrive and thus we carried on performing CPR on the girl by ourselves until an ambulance came about 6 or 7 minutes later,” Zion added. “They joined our effort to revive the girl, and it paid off. After a few more minutes, the girl’s coloring started turning back to normal and her pulse came back. Eventually, she began to take some breaths on her own as well.” 

Rachel added, “It was miraculous that her pulse came back. She was transported to Soroka Hospital in serious but stable condition. A bit later on in the afternoon, I heard from one of the doctors in the hospital that the girl’s situation had improved and she had begun breathing on her own fully. We are very thankful to have been in the right place at the right time in order to help.” 

Zion concluded by saying, “We know the family, they are from our community, and I am very glad that we were able to help today, and hopefully prevent a serious tragedy from taking place. This isn’t the first time I’ve done CPR on a child. A few years ago, a child was left in a hot car and I responded to that incident, but unfortunately, the child didn’t make it. This time, we were able to help and save the child’s life. For that, I am very thankful.”