The siren’s wail of Israel’s volunteer EMS organization United Hatzalah ambucycles shattered the still night of the normally quiet Jerusalem street, as two volunteer medics rushed to a man who had collapsed on a park bench. The man was grabbing his chest, wracked with pain. The medics jumped off their ambucycles, grabbed their emergency medical kits and rushed to help the man.
After a few minutes of treatment the man (aged 47) began to recover and became more aware of his surroundings. When he saw the United Hatzalah medics and the medical kit that they were using he exclaimed: “I donated a medical kit just like this to United Hatzalah.”
As it happens, during last year’s Chinese Auction the same individual decided to help Israel’s national volunteer EMS organization and donated a medical kit to United Hatzalah to enable them to continue their life-saving work. The volunteer medics keep their medical kits nearby at all times so that they can rush out to medical emergencies and provide professional emergency medical treatment.
Then it happened. Without warning the man who made the donation found himself in need of emergency medical treatment and the same type of medical kit which he himself donated, was used when he collapsed on the side of the road. After being released from the hospital following a full recovery, the man said: “I wanted to be part of the great work the United Hatzalah does in saving lives, while also winning some great prizes. Now I see that I was donating for myself and I won the greatest prize, a prize that was completely unexpected, my own life.”
United Hatzalah Director Ze’ev Kashash said: “Between the current security situation and the ongoing carnage on Israel’s roads, all 3,000 United Hatzalah volunteer EMTs, paramedics and doctors work around the clock. Whenever there is a medical emergency all of our volunteers do their utmost to arrive as quickly as they can. This is not the first time that people who we have helped have told us that due to their involvement in events held by our organization that they feel that they are partners in life-saving.”
As the annual Chinese auction approaches once again, Kashash invited everyone to participate and become partners in life-saving. “I want to invite everyone to take part in our ‘Chinese Auction’ and thereby help us purchase the medical equipment that is so vital for saving lives. Our volunteer medics are only half of the story, the other half is the public who supports our organization and the life-saving work we do by donating to United Hatzalah, so that we can continue to maintain the high level of professionalism and life-saving work that we have undertaken until now and continue to grow.”
Kashash explained that the organization is completely funded by public donations. “It is only with your help, the help of the public whom we serve, that we are able to cut down EMS response time and continue to reach injured and sick people and continue to save lives in under three minutes across the country. In order to help encourage people to donate we are offering an incredible selection of prizes, everything from a new car to an all expense paid trip to Prague and many others. Prizes big and small abound in this auction and tickets are very affordable. We want to make sure that everyone who wants to help us save lives can participate. But the true prize is the chance to be a partner and work with us to save lives. That is the unexpected prize, and that is what being united means,” concluded Kashash.
The annual United Hatzalah Chinese Auction began on Sunday May 15th and will continue until tuesday May 31st. For information regarding how to get involved as well as a list of the fabulous prize packages click here: http://sinit.org.il/en/ or call the information center at @ 077-362-1221
