Just after 12:00 p.m. on Tuesday, a man in his 60s suffered a cardiac arrest and collapsed on Mishmar HaYarden Street in Afula. His worried family members called emergency services for help.  

United Hatzalah volunteer EMT Tomer Ben Yehuda was just leaving his home nearby in Afula and heading for his office in Tel Aviv when he received the urgent alert from United Hatzalah’s Dispatch and Command Center regarding the medical emergency. Tomer turned his car around and rushed over to the given address arriving as the first medical responder at the scene. He grabbed his medical kit and ran into the house. He found the man lying on the floor and after quickly checking the man’s pulse and finding none he initiated CPR. 

 

Tomer was joined a few minutes later by a local ambulance team and fellow United Hatzalah EMT Itzik Shayov who arrived riding his emergency e-bicycle. The combined team attached a defibrillator, which did not advise a shock, and alternated applying chest compressions and assisted ventilation. 

 

After approximately ten minutes of CPR, the man’s pulse returned. Tomer and Itzik ceased compressions and assisted in carrying the man to the mobile intensive care ambulance that had just arrived so that he could be transported as quickly as possible to Ha’Emek Hospital for further care. 

 

“I have to admit most of the CPR cases that I have responded to have ended without our managing to bring back the person’s pulse,” Tomer Tomer. “This was a terrific success. Itzik, myself, and the team worked well together and thanks to the quick intervention we managed to bring back this man’s pulse. I was a bit later than I wanted to go to my office, but that is trivial in comparison to helping save a person’s life. I am simply ecstatic about this. There is no feeling like it.”

 

To support the lifesaving work of United Hatzalah volunteers such as Tomer and Itzik, please click here: