On August 4th 2013 Chaim Matzliach, was going about his day when he was dispatched to a mass casualty incident on Highway 6. He hopped on his ambucycle and arrived within minutes.

On arrival, he found a scene of utter mayhem with people screaming, a bus had smashed into a garbage truck. Seeing that Chaim was one of the first medics on scene, he was one of the leaders of the rescue efforts. He immediately started the triage process, ascertaining how many patients were injured and who needed the most attention.

Unfortunately 4 people died on impact, 6 were critically injured and 25 with light injuries. Chaim had the important role of giving United Hatzalah dispatch an accurate assessment of the scene so that they could dispatch resources effectively. Within minutes, he was joined by over 50 United Hatzalah medics!

Chaim helped treat several of the critically injured people, using his specialist spinal immobilization training to help extricate them safely to the awaiting ambulance. There was tremendous cooperation between United Hatzalah and other rescue organizations, one of them being the elite IDF 669 Rescue Helicopter Unit which helped airlift several critical patients to hospital.

With a mass casualty incident, speed is one of the most important factors. There is no doubt that this ambucycle medic helped make a massive difference on this call.